■:m 



liHiiiii;;,: 















'r>. '0. v-^ ,0 _ _ -r^^ ' A^ V . " 'i^-- 






v"^ 'Cc^ «>- ~^^jjr^ 



oo 






\' ^^ 



' ^ ^ A- N ^/^t^ ^ ^ 



vV *' /c '^. 
























y^ -'4.^/'.'^ 


V 








O^ 


■^ ^ . . ^ 




. 






'/" 


-^ -^ * ft "^ 


A 


'■> 


/; 


t,' 


o. 


y^j 


-^^ 


\ 






•> 


:^ 










■^c 












^ 


, N^' '^-' 




. '■t^.'. 






,= x^~^ 









No,, <;> 



■'^ 4-^ 


OS 


s^ ■'^- 












-?^ 






\'^^^^ 



*, ^.^ 









--^^ / ^\/: 






•s^^ *V'"%. * 



o. 









'T'v 



OO. 






■ 8 1 \ 







,:^^-^-^ ,^^ 









\>' ^ ^ "' " A > 






'^ % 



■^<T 



- ^:^ 



<- 








^^^^ "^^ <^ 








s 



ir 



C^ 



1 



xN^' : 



'•*, <t 



<^'' 

-^f- 








.,^^^' 


J- '\- 




s <> 







Sc^r. J^c^r/^r^. 



THE LIFE 



OF 



GEORGE HERBERT 



BY 



GEOEGE L. DUYCKINCK 
u 



-^ 



o.^ 



>TEW YOKK: ^--^^----^ 

€i^encral 3.3votcstant ^Episcopal .SunUaii School 2iuion, 
anti €:|)urcl) 33ooi^ .Society?, 

762 BEOADWAY. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S5S, 

By the GtEneral Protestant Ep/scopal Sunday School Union, 
AND CuuRCir Book Society, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 



William Denyse, Pudney & Ettssell, 

btereotyper and electrotyi'kk, printers, 

183 William Street, N. Y. 79 John-st., N. Y. 



V 



% * 






't . ^ 



PUBLISHED 



BY THE 



SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDEEN 



OF 



ST. THOMAS' CHUECH, 



NEW TOEK. 



TO 

THE VEEY EEYEEEXD 

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. 



LIKE GEOKaE HEEBERT A PEIEST AND POET 

OF 

^'OUE MOTHER, THE CHFECH OF ENGLAND,'' 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

IS EESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 

It has been the endeavor in the following pages to pre- 
sent the beautiful career of "holy Mr. Herbert," with a 
simplicity of style and fulness of detail which should in 
some degree meet the requirements both of youthful and 
mature readers. 

The Life by Izaak Walton has furnished our chief 
authority. We have frequently quoted the words of this 
admirable writer, not only as better than any which we 
could ourselves offer, but from a desire to introduce a 
class of readers — ^many of whom, it is reasonable to sup- 
pose, will, in the following pages, make their first 
acquaintance with old English literature — to one of the 
purest and most delightful authors of our language. 

Much information of an interesting and important 
character, respecting Mr. Herbert's ancestors and imme- 
diate family connections, has been derived from other 
sources. Foremost amongst these ranks the picturesque 
Autobiography of his eldest brother, Lord Herbert of 



Vlll PREFACE. 

Cherbury. We are indebted for valuable details respect- 
ing the career of Nicholas Ferrar to the Life by Peckard, 
reprinted in Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, and 
for information respecting Mr. Herbert's other friends to 
the notes in Prebendary Zouch's edition of Walton's 
Lives. We have also to record our obligations to the 
Lives of Sacred Poets, by the Rev. Robert Aris Willmott, 
to Sir Egerton Brydges' " Restituta," and the contempo- 
rary pages of "Notes and Queries." 

New York, April 26, 1858. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Herbert family— Sir Eicliard of Colebrook— The capture of 
Harlech Castle— A true knight — The seyen brothers and their 
mother — Sir Kichard Herbert the suppressor of thieves, out- 
laws, and rebels — Edward Herbert — His capture of an outlaw 
— Black-Hall — Sir Eichard Herbert, justice Of the peace, and 
Magdalen his wife — The parents of George Herbert 13 



CHAPTEH II. 

Montgomery Castle, its history — George Herbert's birth — His 
brothers, Edward, Eichard, TTilliam, Charles, Henry, and 
Thomas — His sisters, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Frances 21 



CHAPTEE III. 

The mother of George Herbert — Her mother, Margaret Newport 
— Death of George Herbert's father — His early education — 
"Westminster School— His master's anticipations — Cambridge — 
His first poem — Mrs. Herbert's intimacy with Dr. Donne— The 
Autumnal Beauty — History of their friendship — Mrs. Herbert's 
residence at Oxford — Donne's lines to Edward Herbert — Mrs. 
Herbert's care of her children 31 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER IV 



PAQB 



Mrs. Herbert's marriage to Sir John Dan vers— George Herbert 
at Cambridge— Made a Fellow of Trinity College— His deport- 
ment—Prevalent love of dress— Herbert's desire for books- 
State of his health — His brother Henry and sick sister — Distri- 
bution of his father's estate — His income — Sir John Danvers' 
liberality — " Favors come on horseback*' 44 

CHAPTEE Y. 

Mr. Herbert Orator of the University— His letter to King James 
— The Basilicon Doron — Andrew Melvin — Lord Bacon and 
Bishop Andrews — Herbert's Greek letter — Herbert's courtier 
tastes and hopes — His sinecure — Mrs. Herbert's views — Disap- 
pointment — Social position of the clergy — Herbert's views on 
the subject 55 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Herbert ordained Deacon — Prebendary of Leighton — Res- 
toration of the parish church — His mother's objections— The 
Earl of Pembroke— " Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother" — 
Death of Mrs, Herbert — Dr. Donne's funeral sermon — Mr. 
Herbert's verses to his mother's memory — Dr. Donne's rings — 
'' The anchor and Christ" 70 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Herbert's illness — Visits to Woodford and Dauntsey — Epi- 
taph on Lord Danvers— His poem, " Affliction"— Jane Dan- 
vers changes her name into Herbert — Walton's account of their 
married life— Bishop Sanderson 89 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Bemerton— King Charles' admiration of Herbert — " Spiritual 
conflicts" — Bishop Laud — Mr. Herbert's induction — " Tolling 
the bell" — A retrospect — The " minister's wife" — Comfortable 
speech to an old woman — The parish church and parsonage 
repaired— The first sermon 97 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTEK IX. 

PAGE 

A Sunday at Bemerton in 1839— Wilton Hall— The new Herbert 
" Temple" — ^A peep through a window 108 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Herbert's companions at Cambridge — " The Pearl" — Daily 
prayers at Bemerton — "Mr. Herbert's Saint's bell" — Church 
music — Wayside teachings — Catechising — The "poor man 
with a poorer horse" — "Music at midnight" — Mr. Herbert's 
reverence and love for the Bible 116 



CHAPTER XI. 

The country parson — " Shavings of gold" — The parson's apparel 
and housekeeping — " The walls not idle" — The parson's Sun- 
day work — Wasting of disease 127 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Nicholas Ferrar — The Virginia Company — Little Gidden — 
Devotional exercises — The tablet — " Abused as Papists and as 
Puritans" — John Yaldesso — Mr. Ferrar's prayer — Mr. Dun- 
con's visit — " What prayers ?" — Manuscript of the Temple 136 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Mr. Woodnot— The past and the future— Mr. Herbert's last Sun- 
day — "Church mubic" — G-ood works — The death-bed — Mr. 
Herbert's burial — Mrs. Herbert's widowhood — Loss of Mr. 
Herbert's manuscripts 1 49 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Comaro ou Temperance — Proverbs — Walton's description of The 
Temple - Character of the work—" The Church Porch"—" The 
Altar'*—" Sin"— "Virtue"— " The British Church"—" Peace". 159 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XY. 

PAGB 

License for the publication of The Temple— Eeligion and Ameri- 
ca — The Virginia and New England emigrations— Mr. Ferrar's 
Introduction to The Temple— Popularity of the work— The 
Synagogue— Christopher Harvey— Walton's lines—" The Book 
of Common Prayer" — Herbert's Proverbs 171 

CHAPTER XYI. 

Izaak "Walton— Lives of Donne and Walton— The Complete 
Angler— Allusions to Mr. Herbert— Lives of Hooker and Her- 
bert—Prefaces to his Life of Herbert— Woodford's lines on 
Herbert and Donne— Cotton's tribute to Herbert — Duport's 
Latin lines— Life of Sanderson — Wordsworth's sonnet— Wal- 
ton's death— Crashaw's poem on The Temple— Warton and 
Pope— Campbell, Coleridge, and Mrs. Browning— Portrait— 
Norris of Bemerton and Archdeacon Coxe— Conclusion 179 



THE LIFE OF 

GEORGE HERBERT. 

CHAPTEK I. 

THE HEEBEET EA:MILT SIE EICHAED OF COLEBEOOE: THE 

CAPTrEE OF HAELECH CASTLE A TErE EXIGHT THE 

SEYEX BEOTHEES AXD THEIE MOTHEE — SIE EICHAED 
HEEBEET THE SEPPEESSOE OF THIEVES, OETLAWS, 

AXD EEBELS EDWAED HEEBEET HIS CAPTUEE OF AX 

GETLAW — BLACK-HALL SIR EICHAED HEEBEET, JUS- 

■ TICE OF THE PEACE, AND ]5kU.GDALEX HIS TTIFE THE 

PAEEXTS OF GEOEGE HEEBEET. 

GEOEGE HEEBEET, whose works and 
memory form one of the best posses- 
sions of om* Chm'ch, was a member of a 
family which had hekl a high rank and 
eminent position for many generations in the 
history of their native Eno-land. 

The first of his aaicestors of whom vre have 

2 



14 SIEGE OF HARLECH CASTLE. 

an account was his grandfather's grand- 
father. Sir Eichard Herbert, of Colebrook. 
He was a very brave man in battle, the 
chief employment of those days. It is said 
of Sir Eichard that he " twice passed through 
a great army of northern men alone, with his 
pole or battle-axe in his hand, and returned 
without any mortal hurt." 

We have another story which illustrates 
the good knight's honorable regard for his 
promise. He was employed by King Ed- 
ward the Fourth to besiege Harlech Castle, 
in Merionethshire, in Wales. The castle was 
held by a brave captain who had served for 
many years in France. It was his boast that 
he " had kept a castle in France so long that 
he made the old women in "Wales talk of 
him, and that he would keep the castle so 
long that he would make the old women in 
France talk of liim.'' He made good his 
word by an obstinate defence. The position 
of the castle was so strong as to render it 



siK eichard's word. 15 

almost impossible to overcome its inmates, 
except by starvation. To induce a surrender 
Sir Eicbard promised to urge King Edward 
tbe Fourth to spare tbe captain's life, wbicb 
had been forfeited by bis rebellion. Tbe 
knigbt soon after brought his prisoner before 
the king and represented the circumstances 
of the surrender. The king replied that he 
had given no authority to his officer to hold 
out any hopes of mercy, and that the latter 
having used his best exertions to save his 
foeman's life, had satisfied his pledged word. 
But Sir Richard would not be tempted from 
his obligation. " Grant me, I pray," he en- 
treated his sovereign, "one of two things. 
Either place this brave man back in his 
castle and send some one else to subdue him, 
or else take my life in place of his whom I 
have promised to do my utmost to have 
spared." The king was so impressed by this 
honorable devotion that he granted the pris- 
oner's life. 



16 THE SEVEN BROTHERS. 

There is another example of Sir Richard's 
love of mercy. He had, with his brother, 
the Earl of Pembroke, captured, in the island 
of Anglesea, seven brothers, who had, in 
the simple but expressive words of the nar- 
rative, " done many mischiefs and murders." 
The Earl "thinking it fit to root out so 
wicked a progeny," ordered them all to be 
hanged. Their mother came to the captors 
and begged that two, or at least one, of her 
offspring might be spared to her, urging that 
the execution of the others would be a Buf- 
ficient atonement to justice. Sir Richard 
seconded the mother's petition ; but the Earl 
decided that all having been equally guilty, 
all should suffer the same penalty. His 
sentence, that they should all be executed 
together, so enraged their mother with grief 
that she knelt down and cursed the judge, 
praying that he might suffer defeat or mishap 
in the next battle in which he should be en- 
gaged. This incident Avas soon afterwards 



EICHAED HEEBEET. 17 

i 

followed by the encounter at Eclgecote, in 
I which both brothers were taken prisoners. 
Sir Eichard, still magnanimous, entreated 
his captors to sj)are5 not his own life, but his 
i brother's. Both were afterward set at liberty. 
The good knight's son, also named Richard, 
was steward, in the reio:n of Kino; Henry the 
Eighth, of the lordships and marches of 
North Wales, East Wales, and Cardiganshire, 
a large and important district, throughout 
which he exercised soyereign power oyer the 
liyes of offenders. It is recorded to his credit 
that though '^a great suppressor of rebels, 
thieyes, and outlaws, he was just and con- 
scionable." He might haye amassed great 
wealth by an unjust exercise of the powers 
of his office, but he wisely preferred to be- 
queath to his descendants the better heritage 
of a good name. 

His son Edward, the grandfather of George 
Herbert, after running a successful career as 
a soldier, acquiring wealth as well as honor,. 

2^ 



18 THE outlaw's AKROW. 

settled down in the family castle of Mont- 
gomery, in Wales. He was justice of the 
peace, and a great terror to the outlaws and 
thieves who infested the mountainous coun- 
try in which he lived, frequently attacking 
and capturing them in their strongholds. 
The des23erate nature of these miscreants 
may be inferred from an anecdote which we 
will give in the words of Edward Herbert's 
grandson, Lord Herbert of Cherbury : 

" Some outlaws being lodged in an ale- 
house upon the hills of Llandinam, my grand- 
father and a few servants coming to appre- 
hend them, the principal outlaw shot an 
-arrow against my grandfather, which stuck 
in the pommel of his saddle, whereupon my 
grandfather coming up to him with his sword 
in liis hand, and taking him prisoner, he 
showed him the said arrow, bidding him look 
what he had done, whereof the outlaw was 
:no further sensible than to say he was sorry 
that he left his better bow at home, which 



BLACK-HALL CHEEE. 19 

he conceived would have carried his shot to 
his body ; but the outlaw, being brought to 
justice, suffered for it." 

The judge took great delight in the exer- 
cise of the virtue of hospitality, " having a 
very long table twice covered every meal 
with th^ best meats that could be gotten, and 
a very great family." His good cheer was 
so celebrated, that it was a favorite saying in 
the country around, when a fowl rose : " Fly 
where thou wilt, thou wilt light at Black- 
liall !" — ^Black-hall being the name of a resi- 
dence, described as a "low building, but of 
great capacity," erected during the latter 
part of his life. 

In the next generation we again meet the 
familiar family name of Richard in the per- 
son of the father of George Herbert. This 
gentleman was also a justice of the peace, and 
so resolute in the discharge of his duties that 
he was once severely wounded in an attempt 
to secure an offender who had defied the 



20 MAGDALEN HERBERT. 

ordinary process of law. He married Mag- 
dalen, daughter of Sir Eicliard and Margaret 
ITewport, a lady also descended from an 
ancient family, and, as we sliall see, well 
qualified to adorn the honorable position in 
which she was placed. 



CHAPTEE n. 

MOXTGOMEEY CASTLE, ITS HISTOEY GEOEGE HERBEET^S 

BIETH HIS BEOTHEES, EDWAED, EICHAED, WILLIAM, 

CHAELES, HEXEY, AXD THOMAS HIS SISTEES, ELIZA- 
BETH, MAEGAEET, AXD FEAXCES. 

THE Herbert family had for many genera- 
tions inhabited the castle of Montwrn- 
ery, a noted stronghold, which was, even in 
their time, invested with the interest of an- 
tiquity. The oldest portion was erected by 
Baldwin, a companion of William the Con- 
queror. It was afterwards in the possession 
of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrews- 
bury, by whom it was greatly enlarged and 
strengthened. As it was on the border be- 
tween England and Wales, it was a strong- 
hold of great importance, especially during 
the contests between the British and the Sax- 



22 MONTGOMERY CASTLE. 

ons. During the middle portion of the four- 
teenth century it became the property of the 
House of York, and subsequently, through 
that royal line, of the Crown, by whom it was 
granted, in the following century, to the Her- 
bert family. At the outset of the civil war 
which raged for many years of the seven- 
teenth century, it was garrisoned by the 
King's party, but soon surrendered to the 
Parliamentary forces, by whose order it was 
demolished. The picturesque remains of its 
round keep and outer walls still interest the 
traveller. 

George Herbert was born in the old castle 
whose varied fortunes we have just traced, 
on the third of April, 1593. He was j^rob- 
ably named after an uncle George, of Xew 
College, Oxford, who, as Lord Herbert of 
Cherbury informs us, " was very learned, of 
a pious life, and died in a middle age of a 
dropsy." He was the fiftli son of a family 
to which others were afterwards added, so 



EDWAED HEEBEET. 23 

that his mother, to quote her favorite enu- 
meration of her offspring, finally possessed 
"Job's number and Job's distribution" — 
seven sons and three daughters. They all 
grew up, under her religious care, to occupy 
stations of honor and usefulness. Edward, 
the eldest, early attached himself to the 
Court. He passed many years in foreign 
travel, and was for a long period the Am- 
bassador of his country in France, where he 
made himself obnoxious to the party in 
power by his sympathy with the persecuted 
Protestants of that country. On his return 
he was made Baron of Cherbury, in Shrop- 
shire, bv Kino; James. He was the author of 
a book in the Latin language, on the Chris- 
tian Religion, in which he compares the doc- 
^inea and duties of our blessed Faith with 
those o1^<the idolatrous systems of antiquity. 
He also wrote a Historv of the Eeio^n of Kinp; 
Henry the Eighth, and his Autobiography — 
an extremely candid and interesting record of 



24: AIJTOBIOGEAPHY AND POEIVIS. 

the varied incidents of his life. It was writ- 
ten after he had passed his sixtieth year. He 
died in 1648. His Autobiography, to which 
we have been indebted for the facts narrated 
in our first chapter, remained in manuscript 
until 1764, when it was printed, with a preface, 
by Horace Walpole, at his private press at 
Strawberry Hill. It was reprinted by Dods- 
ley in 1770, and a third edition, edited by 
Sir Walter Scott, has since been published. 

A volume of his poems appeared in 1665, 
after his death, with the title, '' Occasional 
Yerses of Edward Lord Herbert, Baron of 
Cherbury and Castle Island, deceased in Au- 
gust, 1648." We extract the best of the few 
specimens given of the collection in Sir Eger- 
ton Brydges' Eestituta."^ 

TO THE C. OF D.f 

Since in your face, as in a beauteous sphere, 
Delight and state so sweetly mix' d appear, 
That love's not light, nor gravity severe, 

<'■ Vol. II., p. 426. t Probably the Countess of Dorset. 



EICHAED HEKBERT. 25 

All your attractive graces seem to draw, 

A modest vigor keepeth so in aw, 

That in tlieir turns each of them gives the law. 

Therefore, though chaste and vertuous desire 
Through that your native mildness may aspire 
Untill a just regard it doth acquire ; 
Yet if love, thence, a forward hope project, 
You can, hy virtue of a sweet neglect, 
Convert it straight to reverend respect. 

Thus, as in your rare temper we may find 

An excellence so perfect in each kind, 

That a fair body hath a fairer mind ; 
So all the beams you diversly do dart, 
As well on th' understanding as the heart, 
Of love and honour equal cause impart. 

The brothers next in age, Richard and Wil- 
liam, after receiving a liberal education, be- 
came soldiers. Richard engaged in the serv- 
ice of the United Provinces of Holland, and 
died while employed in the struggle for re- 
ligious and civil liberty, which afterwards re- 
sulted in the emancipation of that country 
from the superstition and tyranny of Spain. 
His body, when carried to the grave at Ber- 
gen-op-Zoom, bore, it is said, the scars of four- 

3 



26 WILLIAM AND CHARLES HERBERT, 

and-twenty wounds. William, like his broth- 
ers, maintained the warlike character of his 
house. He commenced service in Denmark, 
" where, fighting a single combat, and having 
his sword broken, he not only defended him- 
self with that piece which remained, but, clos- 
ing with his adversary, threw him down and 
so held him, until company came in." He 
next went to the Netherlands, where his ca- 
reer soon after closed. 

Charles, the fourth brother, became a Fel- 
low of jSTew College, Oxford. A Fellow is 
one of a limited number of persons educated 
at an English college, who receive, as a re- 
ward for their application to study, and as an 
incentive to continue in the same useful pur- 
suit, the free occupancy of apartments and 
a regular support from the institutions in 
which they have distinguished themselves. 
He did not long enjoy his honors and advan- 
tages, dying, at an early age, at his college, 
after having given bright promise of future 



A SEA-FIGHT. 27 

usefulness. George, the fifth son, will form 
the subject of our biography. 

Hemy, the sixth son, became Gentleman of 
the Txing's Privy Chamber, and Master of the 
Eevels, or director of the amusements of the 
Court of King James, an office which he re- 
tained for fifty years. He married a wealthy 
lady and amassed a large estate. 

The seventh and youngest son, Thomas, 
was born a few weeks after his father's death. 
He was page to Sir Edward Cecil, com- 
mander of the English forces in the German 
wars, and displayed great daring at the siege 
of Juliers, in the year 1610. On his return 
he was naturally attracted to the ocean as a 
field of adventure, and sailed for the East 
Indies under the command of Captain Joseph. 
On the voyage the captain, falling in with 
and engaging "a great Spanish shij)," was 
killed in the encounter. This misfortune 
naturally disheartened his men, but, on being 
rallied by Thomas Herbert, they renewed 



28 THE ALGEEIXES. 

the fight with such energy and success, as to 
run aground and completely riddle their op- 
ponent. He remained a year in the Indies 
and then returned with the fleet to Enorland. 
He next engaged under Sir Robert Mansell, 
in the fleet sent hj King James against the 
Algerines. These piratical inhabitants of the 
south-western shores of the Mediterranean 
were then the terror of Europe, on account 
of their relentless attacks upon the shipping 
and coasts of that sea, and their practice of 
consigning all captives who were unable to 
pay a costly ransom, to a hopeless and cruel 
bondage. 

Thomas Herbert, in the hearty words of 
Izaak Walton, "did show a fortunate and 
true English valor" in the punishment of 
these miscreants. The fleet being, on one oc- 
casion, in great want of money and provis- 
ions, the ships separated in the hope that 
they might thus fall in with and capture one 
or more of the enemy's vessels, and thus ex- 



A SHIPWEECK. 29 

peditiouslj provide for the necessities of the 
whole. Thomas Herbert had the good for- 
tune to realize these expectations hj secur- 
ing a prize which yielded supplies to the 
value of eighteen hundi^ed pounds. 

His last recorded exploit displays the kind- 
ness which is the almost constant accom- 
paniment of true bravery. "While conduct- 
ing Count Mansfelt to Holland, the vessel in 
which they were embarked ran aground. It 
was not far from the shore. The Count with 
his train were placed in the long boat, Her- 
bert refusing to accompany them, that he 
might remain to assist the master in his 
efforts to save the vessel. He was the last, 
with the exception of the captain, after the 
hopelessness of these exertions became ap- 
parent, to abandon the wreck. It must have 
been a dangerous service, as the ca{)tain, re- 
fusing to leave, was lost with the ship. 

The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, seems to 
have shared the feeble constitution of her 

3* 



30 GEOEGE Herbert's sisters. 

brother George. '^Tlie latter end of lier 
time," says Lord Herbert, "was the most 
sicklj and miserable that hath been known 
in onr times. For the space of about four- 
teen years she languished and pined away to 
sMn and bones." She married "Sir Henry 
Jones, of Albemarles." Margaret, the next 
daughter, became the wife of a Welsh neigh- 
bor, John Yaughan, of Llwydiart. Frances, 
the Youno;est, married Sir John Brown, 
" Knight in Lincolnshire." These ladies all 
became exemplary matrons. 



CHAPTEK in. 



I 



THEE HIS EAELT EDUCATION— WESTMINSTEE SCHOOL- 



THE AUTUMNAL BEAUTY — HISTOEY OF THEIE FEIEND- 
SHIP — MES. HEEBEET^S EESIDENCE AT OXFOED — DONNe's 

LINES TO EDWAED HEEBEET MES. HEEBEET's CAEE OF 

HEE CHILDEEN. 

THE mother of tlie large and gifted 
family, whose varied and eventful for- 
tunes we have briefly sketched, was one well 
fitted to bear the important duties of her 
position. She had herself enjoyed the ad- 
vantages of careful maternal training, her 
mother, Lady Margaret ITewport, who be- 
came a widow at an early age, devoting her 
entire attention to the care of her family and 



32 MOTHER AXD DArGHTER. 

to works of piety and benevolence. We read 
of her as '*most assiduous and devout in her 
daily, both private and public, prayei^s," and 
that, in addition to a bountiful hospitality, 
" she used ever after dinner to distribute 
with her own hands to the poor, who re- 
sorted to her in great numbers, alms in 
money, to every one of them more or less, as 
she thought they needed it."' 

Mrs. Herbert, under somewhat similar cir- 
cumstances, exhibited kindred maternal vir- 
tues. She furnishes one of the many ex- 
amples among the mothers of great men, of 
the possession of the eminent virtues and 
talents which have won the admiration and 
affection of the world. Fortunately for our 
readers, she will often appear in these pages. 

"We now return to George Herbert. At 
the early age of four years he had the mis- 
fortune to lose his father, who had for some 
time suffered from a lingering, wasting dis- 
ease. George received, under the super- 



WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 33 

vision of his motlier, the rudiments of 
education from a tutor who resided in the 
family. When he was twelve years old he 
entered Westminster School, a celebrated 
institution of learning connected with the 
world-renowned Abbey. 

By the kind influence of Dr. Xeale, Dean 
of "Westminster, he was especially com- 
mended to the care of the head master, ]\Ir. 
L'eland. He soon gained the respect and 
affection of this gentleman, and of the other 
teachers, as well as of his fellow-scholars, by 
his gentle and winning manners. He already 
began to do good in the world by helping 
others, and by the quiet influence of a good 
example. ""By applying himself earnestly to 
his studies his duty became his pleasure, and, 
strange as it may appear to lazy schoolboys, 
he learned to love Latin and Greek. At the 
age of fifteen he was elected, on account of 
his good scholarship, a student of Trinity 
College, Cambridge. He quitted West- 



34 CAJyrBRIDGE. 

minster in company with Jolm Ilacket, 
afterward Bishop of Lichfield. Mr. Ireland, 
foreseeing the future eminence from the 
present promise of his two pupils, remarked 
to them at parting, "that he expected to 
have credit from them two at the University, 
or he would never hope for it afterwards 
while he lived." 

Cambridge, like Oxford, derives its fame 
and importance almost entirely from the 
many institutions of learning gathered within 
its boundaries. The colleges stand for the 
most part side by side, facing a long and 
handsome street. Their walls do not touch, 
for each possesses grounds of beautifully ver- 
dant and closely shorn greensward, almost 
as soft to the foot as a bed of moss. Back 
of these flows the Cam, a placid stream of 
only a few yards in width. It is spanned by 
several fine bridges which afford ready 
access to beautiful lawns and gardens. As 
the entire space is devoted to pleasure 



COLLEGE LAWNS. 35 

grounds, an uninterrupted view is afforded 
of the colleges, with their noble towers and 
pinnacles, the high-ridged roofs of their 
chapels and halls, the ivy-clad walls of their 
quadrangles (the large court around which 
rise the buildings for the residence and in- 
struction of the students), and beautifully 
carved portals whose thresholds were even 
then worn by the footsteps of successive 
generations. The only interruption to the 
free range of the spectator's glance is an en- 
hancement rather than a diminution of his 
pleasure. Trees of •noble growth are scat- 
tered over the grounds or border stately 
avenues. We may wander in comfort at hot 
noontide beneath their shelter, or admire the 
effect of the long shadows over lawn and 
gable at eventide. 

Most of these charms were present to the 
eye of the scholar of Herbert's day, as to 
the generation which happily still peoples 
these retreats. His was not a mind to neg- 



36 A NEW YExiE's GIFT. 

lect such advantages. The scenes of his 
childhood had trained his taste for the bean 
ties of art and nature, and his Maker had 
endowed him with the happy faculty by 
which his mental enjoyments could be im- 
j)arted to others. 

The first of his poems of w^hich we find an 
account in his biographer "Walton, was ad- 
dressed to his mother on the first New Year's 
day after his establishment at Cambridge. 
In the letter accompanying these verses^ 
after lamentino; that the writers of his dav 
devoted their time and talents to trivial and 
often wicked themes, he says, " For my own 
part, my meaning (dear mother) is, in tliese 
sonnets, to declare my resolution to be, that 
my poor abilities in poetry shall be all and 
ever consecrated to God's glory." 

We extract " these sonnets" for their own 
merits, in addition to the interest con- 
nected with them as the first recorded pro- 
duction of their author. The true " ancient 



SOCKETS. 37 

heat'' of poetry as well as devotion glows 
in them. 

My God where is that ancient heat towards thee 
"Wherewith whole shoals of martyrs once did bum, 

Besides their other flames ? Doth poetry 
Wear Yenus' livery ? only serve her turn ? 

Why are not sonnets made of thee ? and lays 
Upon thine altar burnt ? Cannot thy love 

Heighten a spirit to sound out thy praise 
As well as any she ? Cannot thy dove 

Outstrip their Cupid easily in flight ? 

Or, since thy ways are deep, and still the same, 
Will not a verse run smooth that bears thy name ? 

Why doth that fire, which by thy power and might 
Each breast does feel, no braver fewel choose 
Than that, which one day worms may chance refuse. 

Sure, Lord, there is enough in thee to dry 

Oceans of ink ; for, as the deluge did 
Cover the earth, so doth thy Majesty : 

Each cloud distils thy praise, and doth forbid 
Poets to turn it to another use. 

Eoses and lilies speak thee ; and to make 
A pair of cheeks of them is thy abuse. 

Why should I women's eyes for crystal take ? 
Such poor invention burns in their low mind 

Whose fire is wild and doth not upward go 

To praise, and on thee, Lord, some ink bestow. 
Open the bones, and you shall nothing find 

In the best face but filth ; when, Lord, in thee 

The beauty lies in the discovery. 

4 



38 THE AUTUM^^AL BEAUTY. 

The mother could not fail to appreciate 
and encourage the exertions of her son. Her 
brilliant natural acquirements had been cul- 
tivated by intercourse with some of the most 
gifted men of the age. She was an intimate 
friend of l)r. John Donne, afterwards Dean 
or chief pastor of St. Paul's Cathedral in 
London, one of the most esteemed poets of 
his day, and a learned and eloquent divine. 
The verses addi-essed to her by Donne show 
his high estimate of her mental qualifications. 
Avoidino; the low flatterv bv which a com- 
mon mind would perhaps have striven to 
make the object of his j)raises forgetful of 
the advances of age, he styles her, with sim- 
plicity and sincerity, Thc'Autumnal Beauty. 
A few of his best turned lines and compli- 
ments may be given : 

No Spring, nor Summer's beauty hath such grace, 
As I have seen in one autumnal face. 

o o c- c- o 

Were her first years the golden age ? that's true ; 
But now she's gold oft tried, and ever new. 



MES. HEEBEET AT OXFOED. 39 

That was her torrid and inflaming time ; 

This is her habitable tropic clime. 

Fair eyes, who asks more heat than comes from hence^ 

He in a fever wishes pestilence. 

o o a c- «- 

In all her words, nnto all hearers fit, 
You may at revels, you at councils sit."^* 

The circumstances which led to this 
pleasant friendship throw so much light on 
the noble character of this Christian mother 
that it would be unpardonable to omit the 
narration. It arose during her residence in 
Oxford, to which place she had removed in 
order to superintend the training of her 
eldest son Edward, who had entered Queen's 
College in that citj. She provided him with 
a well-qualified tutor and remained near^ 
that the quiet influence of her presence and 
the pleasure of her society might guard and 
divert him from the temptations to which 
youth ai^ liable. In the words of Walton, 
" She continued there with him, and still 
kept him in a moderate awe of herself, and 

« Bonne's Poems. Boston, 1855, p. 344. 



4:0 EDUCATIO]S'. 

SO much under lier own eye, as to see and 
converse with him daily; but she managed 
this power over him without any such rigid 
sourness as might make her company a tor- 
ment to her child, but with such a sweetness 
and compliance with the recreations and 
pleasures of youth, as did incline him wil- 
lingly to spend much of his time in the com- 
pany of his dear and careful mother ; which 
was to her great content, for she would often 
say, ' That as our bodies take a nourishment 
suitable to the meat on which we feed, so our 
souls do as insensibly take in vice by the ex- 
ample or conversation with wicked com- 
pany.' And would, therefore, as often say, 
'That ignorance of vice was the best pre- 
servative of virtue ; and that the very knowl- 
edp-e of wickedness was as tinder to inflame 
and kindle sin, and to keep it burning.' For 
these reasons she endeared him to her own 
company, and continued with him in Oxford 
four years." 



THE FKIENDS. 41 

It was during this long residence that she 
became acquainted with Mr., afterwards Dr., 
John Donne. He had not yet entered the 
ministry. She not only aided him by her 
counsel and sympathy, but also with her 
purse, an assistance rendered necessary by 
the frequent exhaustion of his slender means 
in the support of his wife and seven children. 
His letters as well as poems bear evidence 
of his appreciation of these kindnesses, and 
his future eminence shows the aid to have 
been wisely appropriated. 

The friendship was life-long, and was ex- 
tended as warmly to her sons as to herself. 
He addresses the eldest, Edward, at the 
Siege of Juliers, at the close of a poetical 
epistle : 

As brave as true is that profession than, 
Which you do use to make ; that you know man. 
This makes it credible you've dwelt upon 
All worthy books, and now are such a one ; 
Actions are authors, and of those in you 
Your friends find every day a mart of new. 
4^ 



42 swTArsnxG and obediexce. 

He was also, as we shall see, tlie con- 
stant friend and ai-dent admii-er of our 
liero. 

A curious instance of Mrs. Herbert's care 
of her children is given in her son. Lord 
Herbert of Cherbury's Autobiography, and 
may be fitly inserted here. He is enu- 
umerating the essentials of a liberal educa- 
tion : 

" It will be fit for a gentleman also to learn 
to swim, unless he be given to cramps and 
convulsions ; howbeit I must confess in my 
own particular that I cannot swim, for as I 
was once in danger of drowning by learning 
to swim, my mother upon her blessing 
charged me never to learn swimming, tell- 
ing me further, that she had heard of more 
drowned than saved by it, which reason, 
though it did not prevail with me, yet her 
commandment did." AVe may, like the son, 
be unconvinced by the " reason," but it is im- 
possible not to admire the example of obedi- 



OBEDIENCE. 43 

ence. It is a happy illustration of the poet's 
time. 

When a parent's will 

Was sacred still, 

As a law by his children heeded. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



MES. HEEBEET's marriage TO SIR JOITN DANYERS — 

GEORGE HERBERT AT CAMBRIDGE ^MADE A FELLOW OF 

TRINITY COLLEGE HIS DEPORTMEXT — PREYALEXT 

LOYE OF DRESS — HERBERT'S DESIRE FOR BOOKS — STATE 
OF HIS HEALTH — HIS BROTHER HEXRY AND SICK 



COME ON HORSEBACK." 

MES. HEEBEKT did not, as in the case 
of her son Edward, accompany George 
to college, her recent marriage to Sir 
John Danvers — ^brother and heir to Lord 
Danvers, Earl of Derby — imposing new 
duties elsewhere. It was probably also felt 
that the youth's feet were already set in the 
ways of a pleasantness to which earthly 
temptations could offer no counter attraction, 
and that he could thus be safely left in some 



APPOINTED A MIlSrOE FELLOW. 45 

measure to the guidance of his own judg- 
ment. His mother's care and influence, 
however, procured for him the protection of 
Dr. Nevil, Dean of Canterbury and master 
of his college. He was hospitably enter- 
tained by this gentleman, and provided with 
a tutor to aid and direct his studies. 

" I need not declare," says "Walton of 
George Herbert at this time, " that he was a 
strict student, because that he was so, there 
will be many testimonies in the future part 
of his life." He passed through his col- 
legiate course with honor, and in the year 
1612 received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
On the 3d of October, 1614, he obtained the 
appointment of Minor Fellow of his college. 

Herbert was at this time somewhat re- 
served in his deportment. He associated 
with but few persons, but these were selected 
for their sterling worth. One of his most in- 
timate friends was Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, then 
a student of Clare Hall. We shall have occa- 



46 FOPPISKNTSS. 

sion to speak of him at length at a later 
period of his career. 

We can hardly expect to find any young 
man entirely free from the foibles of those by 
whom he is surrounded. Extravagance in 
attire is a frequent weakness with college 
students, and one from which Herbert does 
not appear to have been exempt. It was a 
prevalent folly of the age, indulged in not 
only by inexperienced youth, but by many 
of the first men of the state. " Courtiers," it 
is said, "placed flowers behind their ears, 
and one of the most elegant noblemen of the 
age, William, Earl of Pembroke, a kinsman 
of Herbert, wore ear-rings."* The Chandos 
porti^ait of Shakspeare shows that he in- 
dulged in the same questionable ornament. 
It attained such a height among the unthink- 
ing youth at the universities, that a curious 
reorulation was issued bv the Yice-Chancellor 

^ WUlmott's Lives of Sacred Poets. 



MASTER OF ARTS. 47 

of Cambridge, in IGl^, forbidding " strange 
pekadivelas, vast bands, bnge cuffs, sboe 
roses, tufts, locks and topps of hair, unbe- 
seeming the modesty and carridge of stu- 
dents in so renowned an Universitye," under 
penalty of a fine of six shillings and eight- 
pence, with a month's imprisonment. The 
close cropped hair and " sad coloured" 
clothes of the Puritans were a natural though 
excessive protest against the prevalent ex- 
travagance. 

In March, 1615, Mr. Herbert was made a 
Major Fellow of his college. In the follow- 
ing year he received the degree of Master of 
Arts. A letter, bearing date March 18, 
1617, addressed to his father-in-law, furnishes 
us with some interesting particulars relating 
to his position at the time. It opens with an 
appeal for aid in the purchase of books. 

" You know, sir," he says, " how I am now 
setting foot in divinity, to lay the platform 
of my future life, and shall I then be fain al- 



48 A PLEA FOR BOOKS. 

ways to borrow books, and build on an- 
other's foundation ? What tradesman is there 
who will set up without his tools ?" 

His next plea is an adroit one : " My friends 
would have been forward to say, if I had 
taken ill courses, ^Follow your book, and 
you shall want nothing.' You know, sir, it 
is their ordinary speech, and now let them 
make it good ; for since, I hope, I have not 
deceived their expectation, let them not de- 
ceive mine. But; perhaps, they will say, 
' You are sickly ; you must not study too 
hard.' It is true (God knows) I am weak, 
yet not so but that every day I may step 
one step towards my journey's end ; and I 
love my friends so well, that if all tilings 
proved not well, I had rather the fault should 
lie on me than on them." 

His weak health has, he urges, forced him 
to expenditures. " You know I was sick last 
vacation ; neither am I yet recovered, so 
that I am fain, ever and anon, to buy some- 



StRAlTENED ClKCUMSTAJS-CES. 49 

what tending towards mj health, for in- 
firmities are both painful and costly. Now, 
this Lent, I am forbid ntterly to eat any fish, 
so that I am fain to diet in my chambers at 

m 

my own cost ; for in onr public halls, you 
know, is nothing but fish and white meats. 
Out of Lent, also, twice a week, on Fridays 
and Saturdays, I must do sOj which yet some- 
times I fast. Sometimes also I ride to New- 
market, and there lie a day or two for to 
refresh me ; all which tend to ayoiding cost- 
lier matters if I should fall absolutely sick. 
I protest and yow I eyen study thrift, and 
yet I am scarce able, with much ado, to 
make one half year's allowance shake hands 
with the other ; and yet, if a book of four or 
fiye shillings come in my way, I buy it, 
though I fast for it ; yea, sometimes of ten 
shillings. But, alas, sir, what is that to those 
infinite yolumes of diyinity which yet eyery 
day swell and grow bigg.er?" 

" Noble sir," he earnestly concludes, " par- 

5 



50 BOOKS FEOM ABROAD. 

don my boldness, and consider but these 
tkree things. Fii-st, the bulk of divinity ; 
secondly, the time when I desire this (which 
is now when I must lay the foundation of 
my whole life) ; thirdly, what I desire, and 
to what end — not vain pleasures, nor to a 
vain end. If, then, sir, there be any course, 
either by engaging my future annuity, or 
any other way, I desire you, sir, to be my 
mediator with them on my behalf. Xow I 
write to vou, sir, because to you I have ever 
opened my heart, and have reason, by the 
patent of your perpetual favor, to do so still, 
for I am sure you love 

'' Your faithful servant, 

" George Herbert." 

In a second letter, without date, but writ- 
ten about the same time, lie informs his 
father-in-law that his brother Henry has pur- 
chased a parcel of bpoks for him on the Con- 
tinent, and that they are now on the way 



WAYS AN-D MEAN'S. 51 

home. He proposes to pay for these in part 
by calling upon his sister for the snm of fiye 
or six pounds which she had previously of- 
fered him for the increase of his library ; but 
which he had at the time declined, as the 
books he required could not be obtained in 
the country. To meet the remaining indebt- 
edness, he proposes that his annuity from his 
father's estate should be doubled, on condi-, 
tion that when he shall have obtained a 
benefice or parish, it shall entirely cease. 
This accomplished, "I shall forever after 
cease my clamorous and greedy bookish re- 
quests. It is high time," he concludes, " that 
I should be no more a burden to you, since I 
can never answer what I have already re- 
ceived ; for your favors are so ancient that 
they prevent my memory, and yet still grow 
upon " Tour humble servant, 

"George Heebeet." 

"I remember," he adds in a postscript, 



62 ANNtJITIES. 

" my most humble duty to my mother ; I 
have wrote to my dear sick sister this week 
ah-eady, and therefore now I hope may be 
excused." 

The sister was the invalid Lady Jones, of 
whom we have already spoken. We learn 
the circumstances of the annuity from Lord 
Herbert of Cherbury's Autobiography. 

" My father made either no will, or such 
an imperfect one, that it was not proved. 
My mother, though she had all my father's 
leases and goods, which were of great value, 
yet she desired me to undertake that burden 
of providing for my brothers and sisters, 
which, to gratify my mother as well as those 
60 near me, I was voluntarily content to pro- 
vide thus far as to give my six brothers 
thirty pounds apiece yearly during their lives, 
and my three sisters a thousand pounds 
apiece, which portions married them to those 
I have above-mentioned." 

In addition to this thirty pounds a year, 



A KIND FATHEE-IN'-LAW. 53 

Mr. Herbert was in the receipt of a smaller 
annual stipend from his fellowship. The 
total income is estimated .by Mr. Willmott"^ 
as a fair allowance for the wants of a student 
at the period, money being then worth at 
least treble its present valne. The some- 
what rash proposal respecting the annuity 
was probably not entertained. 

These letters furnish us with pleasant evi- 
dence of the kind relations existing between 
Herbert and Sir John Danvers. Another 
instance of the father-in-law's liberality and 
the student's gratitude will be found in the 
following quaintly worded acknowledgment 
of the gift of a horse : 

" Sir — Though I had the best wit in the 
world, yet it would easily tire me to find out 
variety of thanks for the diversity of your 
favors, if I sought to do so ; but I pro- 
fess it not ; and, therefore, let it be sufficient 

^^ Lives of Sacred Poets, p. 239. 
5^ 



64: FAVORS COME ON HORSEBACK. 

for me that the heart which you have won 
long since, is still true to you, and hath noth- 
ing else to answer your infinite kindnesses 
but a constancy of obedience ; only, here- 
after, I will take heed how I propose my 
desires unto you, since I find you so willing 
to yield to my requests ; for since your favors 
come on horseback, there is reason that my 
desires should go on foot. Neither do I 
make any question but that you have per- 
formed your kindness to the full, and that 
the horse is every way fit for me, and I will 
strive to imitate the completeness of your 
love," etc. 



CHAPTEE Y. 

ME. HEEBEET OEATOE OF THE U^STVEESITY — ^HIS LETTER 

TO KIXG JAMES — THE BASILIC0:N' DOEOX ANDBEW 

MELYIX — LOED BACOX AXD BISHOP AXDEEWS HER- 

beet's GEEEK LETTEE- 

AXD HOPES HIS SINEC 

DISAPPOIXTMEXT SOCIAL POSITION OF THE CLEEGY 

HEEBEET'S TIEWS OX THE SUBJECT. 

ON the 21st of October, 1619, Mr. Her- 
bert was appointed Orator of the Uni- 
versity. He explains the duties and priv- 
ile2:es of his new office in a letter written 
abont this time to Sir John Danvers. 

" The orator's place (that you may under- 
stand what it is) is the finest place in the 
University, though not the gainfullest; yet 
that will be about £30 per annum, but the 
commodiousness is beyond the revenue ; for 



56 BASILICON DORON. 

the orator writes all the University letters, 
makes all the orations, be it to King, Prince, 
or whatever comes to the University ; to re- 
quite these pains, he takes place next the 
doctors, is at all their assemblies and meet- 
ings, and sits above the proctors, is regent, 
or non-regent at his pleasure, and such like 
gaynesses, which will please a young man 
well." 

Herbert soon distinguished himself in his 
office. King James, who prided himself on 
his scholarship and literaiy ability, presented 
to the University a copy of a book which he 
had written, entitled, " Basilicon Doron ; or, 
His Majesty's Instruction to his dearest son, 
Henry the Prince." It was published, some 
time after the date of its composition, in 
1599. Its good sense and wise counsel did 
much (it is said by Archbishop Spotswood 
and the great antiquarian Camden) to secure 
its author's accession to the throne of En- 
gland. It is the best of the King's numerous 



THE JEWEL OF TEGS imiVEKSITY. 57 

writings. Hemy the Prince was the eldest 
brother of Charles the First. He died in 
1612, at the age of nineteen. 

A fitting acknowledgment had, of course, 
to be rendered for the royal gift. The del- 
icate duty fell upon Mr. Herbert. His 
Latin letter of thanks was so well written, 
and its complimentary phrases so happily 
turned, that the monarch, greatly delighted, 
inquired of William, Earl of Pembroke, 
about its author. The nobleman replied, 
" That he knew him very well, and that he 
was his kinsman ; but he loved him more for 
his learning and virtue than for that he was 
of his name and family." "At which 
answer," says Walton, " the King smiled, 
and asked the Earl leave ' That he might 
love him too ; for he took him to be the 
jewel of that University.' " 

The good opinion thus formed was in- 
creased as the King became personally ac- 
quainted with the orator. The royal visits 



68 EEPLY TO ANDEEW MELYIK. 

to tlie University were, of course, occasions 
of great ceremony. The Orator was the 
spokesman of the learned body, and acquit- 
ted himself so much to the satisfaction of his 
hearer, that he was, on one occasion, sum- 
moned to attend the monarch during a hunt- 
ing excursion at Royston, an estate not far 
distant from Cambridge. The King was so 
well pleased with his companion's conversa- 
tion that he afterwards remarked to the Earl 
of Pembroke, ^'That he found the Orator's 
learning and wisdom much above his age or 
wit." 

Mr. Herbert could, on occasion, blame as 
well as praise, satirize as well as compliment. 
His Latin verses in reply to certain bitter 
attacks on the English liturgy and ordinances 
by Andrew Melvin, a distinguished clergy- 
man of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 
were regarded as happy in style and success- 
ful in argument. They were published in 
1'662 by James Duport, Greek Professor of 



LETTER TO MRS. HERBERT. 59 

• 

Cambridge, Dean of Peterborough and Master 
of Magdalen College, at the close of a volume 
of Latin verses from his own pen. The pref- 
ace contains a brief but emphatic testimony 
from this eminent scholar and divine to the 
ability, learning, and piety of their author. 

A letter written at this period by Mr. Her- 
bert to his mother, then suffering from severe 
and long-continued illness, presents us with 
a beautiful evidence of his reverent and 
grateful affection. We quote a portion : 

" For myself, dear mother, I always feared 
sickness more than death ; because sickness 
hath made me unable to perform those offices 
for which I came into the world, and must 
yet be kept in it ; but you are freed from 
that fear, who have already abundantly dis- 
charged that part, having both ordered your 
family and so brought up your children that 
they have attained to the years of discretion 
and competent maintenance. So that now, 
if they do not well, the fault cannot be 



60 THE USE OF KICHES, 

ctarged on yon, whose example and care of 
them will justify you both to the world and 
your own conscience ; insomuch that whether 
you turn your thoughts on the life past, or 
on the joys that are to come, you have 
strong preservatives against all disquiet- 
And for temporal affections I beseech you 
consider, all that can happen to you are 
either afSictions of estate, or body, or mind* 
For those of estate^ of what poor regard ought 
they to be, since if we had riches we are 
commanded to give them away ? so that the 
best use of them is, having, not to have 
them. But, perhaps, being above the com- 
mon people, our credit and estimation calls 
on us to live in a more splendid fashion. 
But, O God! how easily is that answered, 
when we consider that the blessings in the 
holy Scripture are never given to the rich, 
but to the poor. I never find, ' Blessed be 
the rich,' or ' Blessed be the noble ;' but 
Blessed he the meelc^ and Blessed he the poor^ 



AFFLICTIONS "OF BODY AXD SOrL. 61 

and Blessed he the mourners^ for they shall 
he comforted. And yet, God ! most cany 
tliemselves so as if they, not only not desired, 
but even feared to be blessed. And for af- 
flictions of the body, dear Madam, remember 
the holy martyrs of God, how they have 
been burned by thousands, and have endured 
such other tortures as the .very mention of 
them might beget amazement; but their 
fiery trials have had an end, and yours 
(which praised be God, are les^) are not like 
to continue long. I beseech you, let such 
thoughts as these moderate your present fear 
and sorrow ; and know that if any of yours 
should prove a Goliah-like trouble, yet you 
may say with David, That God^ icho de- 
livered rue out of th3 yaws of the lion and 
hear.^ icill also deliver ine out of the hands of 
this uncircinncised Philistine. Lastly, for 
those afflictions of the soul, consider that 
God intends that to be as a sacred temple for 
himself to dwell iu^ and will not allow any 

6 



63 EEJOICE ALWAY. 

roo n there for sucli an inmate as gi'ief, or 
allow that any sadness shall be his com- 
petitor. And, above all, if any care of future 
things molest you, remember those admirable 
words of the Psalmist : Cast thy care on the 
Lord^ and he shall nourish thee. (Psalm Iv.) 
To which join that of St. Peter: Casting all 
your care on him^ for he careth for you. 
(1 Peter y. 7.) What an admirable thing is 
this, that God puts his shoulder to our burden, 
and entertains our care for us that we may 
the more quietly intend his service ! To con- 
clude, let me commend only one place more 
to you (Philip, iv. 4) ; St. Paul saith there, 
Rejoice in the Lord alway. And again I 
saaj^ rejoice. He doubles it to take away 
the scruple of those that might say, ' AVhat ! 
shall we rejoice in afflictions ? Yes, I say 
again rejoice ; so that it is not left to us to 
rejoice or not rejoice ; but whatsoever befals 
us, we must always, at all times, rejoice in 
the Lord, who taketli .care for us. And it 



LORD BACON". 63 

follows in the next verse : Let your modera- 
tion appear unto all men: The Lord is at 
hand : Be careful for nothing. "What can 
be said more comfortably? Trouble not 
yourselves; God is at hand to deliver ns 
from all, or in all. Dear Madam, pardon my 
boldness, and accept tlie good meaning of 
" Yonr most obedient son, 

" Geokge Heebeet." 

During one of the King's visits to the Uni- 
versity he was accompanied by Lord Bacon, 
and Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winchester. 
Both of these great men became acquainted 
with Mr. Herbert, and were soon warmly at- 
tached to him. Lord Bacon was afterwards 
accustomed to solicit Mr. Herbert's opinion 
before sending the manuscript of his works 
to the printer, and gave a public proof of his 
esteem by dedicating his translation of a por- 
tion of the Psalms of David to '' his very 
good friend, Mr. George Herbert." 



61 BISHOP ANDEEWS' LETTER. 

Bishop Andrews testified his respect by 
carrying about with him a letter written by 
Mr. Plerbert in the Greek language after a 
long conversation between the two on " pre- 
destination and sanctity of life." ''The 
Bishopj" to quote the warm-hearted words of 
Walton, "put it into his bosom, and did 
often show it to many scholars, both of this 
and foreign nations ; but did always return 
it back to the place where he first lodged it, 
and continued it so near his heart till the last 
day of his life." 

The favorable estimation in wliich the 
Orator was held by royalty easily led to fre- 
quent visits to the Court. It was but natural 
that a well-endowed young man, of good 
family, should be attracted to public life. 
He had every prospect of success. The King 
had already bestowed upon him a sinecure, 
with a salary of two hundred pounds a year, 
an incident which connects his name pleas- 
antly with that of another gallant gentleman 



TOO SHAEP A WIT. 65 

and good Christian, Sir Philip Sidney, who 
had held the same easy office by the favor 
and in the days of " good Queen Bess." He 
could safely hope for other benefactions from 
the same high source. He saw his brothers 
already entering upon the wished-for career. 
He had the natural desire of a young and 
educated mind to visit foreign countries. 
His slight frame suffered from the effects of 
severe study and mental exertion. In his 
own words, " He had too thoughtful a wit ; 
a wit, like a pen-knife in too narrow a sheath, 
too sharp for his body." 

It must also be admitted that he betrayed 
some of the weaknesses of a courtier. Ac- 
cording to Bishop Williams in his " Life of 
Archbishop Ilacket," "Mr. Herbert," on a 
public occasion in 1618, " passed by thosC' 
fluent orators that domineered in the pulj)its. 
of Athens and Home, and insisted to read, 
upon an oration of King James, which he^ 
analyzed, showed the concinnity of the parts,, 

6" 



66 COURTLY AMBITION. 

the propriety of the phrase, the height and 
power of it to move the affections, the style 
utterly unknown to the ancients, who could 
not conceive what kingly eloquence was ; in 
respect of which those noted demagogi were 
but hirelings and tributary rhetoricians." 

We also find that he absented himself 
from his college. "He seldom looked to- 
wards Cambridge," says Walton, " unless the 
King were there, but then he never failed." 
He looked, however, to a court life of j)ublic 
duty rather than of private ease, his ambi- 
tion pointing him to the office of Secretary 
of State, a position which had been held by 
'.earlier members of his family. His mother, 
whose w^ise forethought had already, as we 
:shall soon see, anticipated his appropriate 
•career, " would by no means allow him to 
leave the University or to travel ; and though 
he inclined very much to both, yet he would 
by no means satisfy his own desires at so 
dear a rate as to prove an undutiful son to so 



THE CHOICE. 67 

affectionate a mother ; but did always submit 
to her wisdom." 

A higher power was, however, to settle 
the question. While thus undecided as to 
his future career, the death of two of his 
most powerful and attached friends, Lodo- 
wick, Duke of Richmond, and James, Mar- 
quis of Hamilton, followed soon after by that 
of the King, removed the tempting hopes of 
court preferment. "We next hear of him in 
the retirement of a friend's country residence 
in the pleasant county of Kent, near Lon- 
don, where he passed through his last debate 
between a court and a clerical life. We now 
find his mother exerting her powerful in- 
fluence in favor of the latter. His choice 
was made not long after. The '^ painted 
pleasures of a court life," still attractive, 
for he still possessed good position, and 
could command powerful influence, were 
abandoned for the highest of earthly voca- 
tions. 



68 SOCIAL posiTioisr of the clergy. 

The ministiy was not then held in the 
same social esteem as at present. Mr. Her- 
bert was urged by " a court friend" in Lon- 
don to give up his proposed calling " as too 
mean an employment, and too much below 
his birth, and the excellent abilities and en- 
dowments of his mind." His reply was in 
these earnest, sensible, and memorable 
words : " It hath been formerly adjudged 
that the domestic servants of the King of 
heaven should be of the noblest families on 
earth ; and though the iniquity of the late 
times have made clergymen meanly valued, 
and the sacred name of Priest contemptible ; 
^yet I will labor to make it honorable by con- 
secrating all my learning and all my poor 
abilities to advance the glory of that God 
that gave them ; knowing that I can never 
do too much for him that hath done so much 
for me as to make me a Christian. And I 
will labor to be like my Saviour, by making 
humility lovely in the eyes of all men, and 



POSITION OF THE CLEHaY. 69 

by following the merciful and meek ex- 
ample of my dear Jesus." 

This passage is interesting not only as 
showing us the struggle in Herbert's mind, 
but also as throwing light upon the position 
of the clergy at that time. In studying 
biography we must always strive to identify 
ourselves with the age in which the hero of 
our story lived. The passage we have quot- 
ed was written near the commencement of 
the reign of Charles the First. It was not 
long since Protestantism had been estab- 
lished in England. The Church had been 
disturbed by those who sided with the views 
of the Continental reformers. The gift of 
livings, or " calls," as we term them, was in 
the hands of the nobles and landed pro- 
prietors, and favoritism could hardly fail to 
be exercised in the appointments to bene- 
fices. All of these circumstances affected 
the social rank of^1:he clergy. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

ME. HERBEET OEDAINED DEACON — PEEBENDAEY OF LEIGH- 
TON — EESTOEATIOX OF THE PARISH CHURCH — HIS MO- 
THER'S OBJECTIONS THE EARL OF PEMBROKE " SID- 
NEY'S SISTER, Pembroke's mother" — death of mrs. 

HERBERT — DR. DONNe's FUNERAL SERMON — MR. HER- 
BERT'S VERSES TO HIS MOTHER'S MEMORY DR. DONNE'S 



ME. HERBEET at once commenced his 
divinity studies, and was, within a few 
months, ordained Deacon. He was soon 
after appointed Prebendary of Leighton, a 
village in the county of Huntingdon. 

A Prebendary is one of the officers of a ca- 
thedral, and is so called " from the assistance 
which the Church afforded him in meat, 
drink, and other necessaries." a prebend being 
" an endowment in lana, or pension in 
money, given to a cathedral or conventual 



LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 71 

clmrch in prcebendum : that is, for a main- 
tenance of a secular priest or regular canon, 
who was a Prebendary, as supported by the 
said prebend." The office in Mr. Herbert's 
time could be held by a layman, as it was 
not until the thirteenth year of the reign of 
King Charles the Second that the law re- 
quiring all persons holding such offices to be 
in priests' orders, was passed.^ 

By the acceptance of this prebend Mr. 
Herbert became connected with the Cathedral 
of Lincoln, one of the largest and most im- 
portant of the great religious endowments of 
England. These, founded long before the 
Reformation, were fortunately preserved, 
during the unavoidable confusion attending 
that great and happy change for the benefit 
of the national Church. 

The church of the parish in which Mr. 
Herbert's prebend w^as situated had for 

^ Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, II., 88. 



72 RESTOEATIOX OF LEIGHTON CHURCH. 

twenty years past remained in sucli a di- 
lapidated condition as to be almost useless. 
Some slight attempts had been made to pro- 
vide the means to put it in a proper con- 
dition for the celebration of public worship, 
but without success. Mr. Herbert at once 
resolved to undertake this important matter. 
His careful mother endeavored to restrain 
him. '' It is not," she said, " for your weak 
body and empty purse to undertake to build 
cliurches." He in reply desired her to grant 
him a day's delay for consideration. This 
obtained and passed, he returned to her. 
Having asked and received her blessing, he 
begged ^' That she would, at the age of 
thirty-three years, allow him to become an 
undutiful son; for he had made a vow to 
God, that if he were able he would rebuild 
that church." He then explained his plan 
to her with such happy success that she be- 
came a contributor to the good work, and 
obtained a subscription of fifty pounds from 



ARTHUR WOODISrOT. 73" 

a wealthy and generous kinsman, William,, 
Earl of Pembroke. This gentleman was the 
son of Mary, the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, 
a lady highly esteemed for her virtues and 
accomplishments. Her character is well ex- 
pressed in her epitaph, one of the most cele- 
brated compositions of its class : 

Underneath this marhle hearse 
Lies the subject of aU verse, 
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother. 
Deatli, ere thou hast slain another, 
Wise, and fair, and good as she. 
Time shaU throw a dart at thee. 

Another liberal contributor was Mr. Arthur 
Woodnot. Mr. Walton introduces this gen- 
tleman to us in these happy words : 

" He was a man that had considered over- 
grown estates do often require more care 
and watchfulness to preserve than get them ; 
and considered that there be many discon- 
tents that riches cure not, and did therefore 
set limits to himself as to desire of wealth ; 
a»d having attained so much as to be able to 

7 



74 LIBERAL CHURCHMEN. 

show some mercy to the poor, and preserve 
a competence for himself, he dedicated the 
remaining part of his life to the service of 
God, and to be useful for his friends ; and 
he proved to be so to Mr. Herbert, for beside 
his own bounty, he collected and returned 
most of the money that was paid for the re- 
building of that church ; he kept all the ac- 
count of the charges, and would often go down 
to state them, and see all the workmen paid." 
Mr. Herbert's friend, Nicholas Ferrar, was 
also a contributor. A letter in the poet's 
handwriting warmly acknowledging this as- 
sistance, is still preserved.* Other friends 
gave their aid ; the Prebendary drew largely 
from his private means, and the sacred 
edifice was gradually so repaired and beau- 
tified as to be excelled by few of its class in 
the land. A recent contributor to ''Notes 
and Queries" informs us that he made a 

^ -Notes and Queries, X., 66. 



CHTECH AERAKGEMENTS. 75 

journey to Leighton for the express purpose 
of yisting an edifice so prominently connected 
with the career of George Herbert. His in- 
teresting narrative traces from the unerring 
indications of architectural style the " resto- 
rations" made by the poet. The edifice was 
new roofed throughout, a tower built, four 
windows placed in the chancel, and a font, 
pulpit, reading-desk, and seats provided by 
his pious care. The internal arrangements, 
made, of course, under his supervision, fur- 
nish important evidence respecting his taste 
in these respects. The seats, both in the 
nave and transept, are open, and so arranged 
that the occupants in service-time all face 
the chancel and officiating clergyman. The 
font is placed at the west end of the nave, 
near the entrance. The chancel is raised 
one step above the nave. The communion 
table stands three steps higher."^ 

^ Notes and Queries, III., 178. 



76 DESK A^^D PULPIT. 

The desk and pulpit, "Walton also informs 
lis, are of an uniform height, in compliance 
with Mr. Herbert's often-expressed opinion, 
that one '' should neither have a precedence 
or priority of the other ; but that prayer and 
preaching being equally useful, might agree 
like brethren, and have an equal honor and 
estimation." 

It is pleasant to find, some two centuries 
later, another eminent poet and churchman, 
Reginald Heber, referring to this example in 
support of his own similar views. " Nor is 
there much decency or good sense," he writes 
to a celebrated architect, Mr. C. E. Cockerell, 
" in exalting the pulpit so greatly above the 
reading-desk, as if preaching were a more 
important office than prayer, or the com- 
mentaries of men more valuable than the 
Scriptures themselves ; and it is therefore 
noticed with approbation by honest Izaak 
Walton, in his Life of Herbert, that this ex- 
cellent man, in the new chm-ch which he 



ADAM CLARKE AT LEIGHTOK. 77 

built at his own expense, had the pulpit and 
desk of the same height and opposite to each 
other."^ 

Another pleasant allusion to Leighton 
church and Herbert meets us in the Life 
of the celebrated Methodist divine, Adam 
Clarke. He writes during one of his numer- 
ous journeys, " On the road we passed by (I 
think it is called) Layton church, where that 
blessed man of God, Mr. Herbert, author 
of the most excellent collection of poems, re- 
published by Mr. Edwards, formerly preach- 
ed. The mere sight of the place where such 
an eminent minister of God hath dispensed 
the word of life, impressed my mind with 
solemnity and reverence. "f 

In 1627, Mr. Herbert was called to lament 
the loss of his excellent and dearly beloved 
mother. She had never entirely recovered 

'■' Life of Bishop Heber by his Widow. Vol. 11. , p. 55. 
f Quoted in the Life (Walton's) and Writings of George,. 
Herbert. Boston, 1851. 

T* 



78 DR. BONNETS SERMO:Sf. 

from the severe illness during which her son 
addressed to her the beautiful letter already 
familiar to us. Her friend Dr. Donne 
preached, on the first of Julj, her funeral 
sermon at the parish church of Chelsea, then 
a pleasant village on the banks of the 
Thames, a little above London, now well- 
nigh absorbed in the solid advance of the 
monster city. We extract a few passages, 
.for their biographical interest, and the noble 
example they present of a Christian life, 
from this eloquent discourse. 

" She lived in a time wherein the proph- 
ecy of St. Peter was over-abundantly per- 
formed, that there should be scoffers, jesters 
in divine things, and matters appertaining to 
God and his religion. ^ ^ This being the 
air and the complexion of the wit of her 
times, and her inclination and conversation 
naturally cheerful and merry, and loving fa- 
cetiousness and sharpness of wit ; neverthe- 
less, who ever saw her, who ever heard 



WEEK-DAY PRAYEES. 79 

her countenance a profane speech, how sharp 
soever, or take part with wit, to the prejudice 
of godliness ? From this I testify her holy 
cheerfulness and religious alacrity (one of 
the best evidences of a good conscience), that 
as she came to this place, God's house of 
prayer, duly, not only every Sabbath, when 
it is the house of other exercises, as well as 
of prayer, but even in those week-days, 
when it was only a house of prayer, as often 
as these doors were open for a holy convoca- 
tion ; and, as she ever hastened her family 
and her company hither with that cheerful 
provocation, For God's sake let us go ; for 
God's sake let us be thei;^ at the confession ; 
so herself, with her whole family (as a church 
in that elect lady's house, to whom John 
wrote the Second Epistle) did, every Sab- 
bath, shut up the day, at night, with a cheer- 
ful singing of psalms ; this act of cheerfulness 
was still the last act of that family, united in 
itself, and with God. God loves a cheerful 



80 OHAKITIES. 

giver — much more, a cheerful giver of him- 
self. Truly, he that can close his eyes in a 
holy cheerfulness, every night, shall meet no 
distempered, no inordinate, no irregular sad- 
ness then, when God, by the hand of death, 
shall close his eyes at last. ^ "^ "^ ^ ^ 

" She gave not at some great clays or some 
solemn goings abroad, but, as God's true 
almoners, the sun and moon, that pass on in 
a continual doing of good, as she received 
her daily bread from God, so daily she dis- 
tributed and imparted it to others. In which 
office, though she never turned her face from 
those who, in a strict inquisition, might be 
called idle and vagrant beggars ; yet she 
ever looked first upon them who laboured, 
and whose labours could not overcome the 
difficulties, nor bring in the necessities of this 
life ; and to the sweat of their brows she con- 
tributed even her wine, and her oil, and any- 
thing that was, and anything that might be, 
if it were not prepared for her own table. 



CAEE OF THE SICK, 81 

And as her house was a court, in the conver- 
sation of the best, and an almshouse in feed- 
ing the poor, so was it also an hospital in 
ministering relief to the sick. And truly the 
love of doing good in this kind, of minister- 
ing to the sick, was the honey that was 
spread over all her bread ; the air, the per- 
fume that breathed over all her house ; the 
disposition that dwelt in those her childi'en, 
and those her kindred which dwelt with her, 
so bending this way that the studies and 
knowledge of one, the hand of another, and 
purse of all, and a joint faculty and open- 
ness, and accessibleness to persons of the 
meanest quality, concurred in this blessed 
act of charity to minister relief to the sick^ 
of which, myself, who at that time had the 
favour to be admitted into that family, can 
and must testify this, that when the late 
heavy visitation fell hotly upon this town, 
when every door was shut up, and lest death 
should enter into the house, every house was 



82 THE SCRIPTURE AND THE CBTOTtCH. 

made a sepnlclire of them that were in it, 
then, then, in that time of infection, divers 
persons visited with that infection, had their 
relief, and relief applicable to that very in- 
fection from this house. "^ ^ ^ "^ ^ 

" As the rule of all her civil actions was 
religion, so the rule of her religion was the 
Scripture ; and her rule for her particular 
understanding of the Scripture was the 
Church. She never diverted towards the 
papist in undervaluing the Scripture, nor 
towards the separatist, in undervaluing the 
Church. But in the doctrine and discipline 
of that Church in which God sealed her to 
himself in baptism, she brought up her chil- 
dren, she assisted her family, she dedicated 
her soul to God in her life, and surrendered 
it to him in her death ; and in that form of 
common prayer which is ordained by that 
Church, and to which she had accustomed 
herself with her family twice every day, she 
joined with that company, which was about 



god's physic akd god's music. 83 

her death -bed, in answering to every part 
thereof, which the congregation is directed to 
answer to, with a clear understanding, with 
a constant memory, with a distinct voice, not 
two hours before she died. According to 
this promise, that is, the will of God mani- 
fested in the Scriptures, she expected this, 
that she hath received God's physic, and 
God's music, a Christianly death. ^ ^ ^ 
" How may we think she was joyed to see 
that face that angels delight to look upon, 
the face of her Saviour, that did not abhor 
the face of her faithfulest messenger, death ? 
She showed no fear of his face, in any 
change of her own, but died without any 
change of countenance or posture, with- 
out any struggling, any disorder ; but her 
death-bed was as quiet as her grave. To 
another Magdalen^ Christ said upon earth, 
Touch me not, for I am not ascended. Being 

'•'- This, it wiU be remembered, was Lady Danvers' 
Christian name. 



84 RESURRECTION. 

ascended now to his glory, and she being 

gone lip to him, after she had awaited her 

leisure so many years, as that more would 

soon have grown to be vexation and sorrow, 

as her last words here were, I submit my 

will to the will of God ; so we doubt not 

but the first word which she heard there was 

that euge^ from her Saviour, TTell done, good 

and faitliful servant, enter into thy Master's 
4q^^ -i^ 7f ^ -jf 7f -k- -x- 

In which expectation (of the resurrection) 
she returns to her former charity; she will 
not have that till we all shall have it as well 
as she. She ate not her morsels alone, in her 
life (as Job speaks^) ; she looks not for the 
glory of the resurrection alone, after her 
death ; but when we all shall have been 
mellowed in the earth many years, or 
changed in the air, in the twinkling of an 
eye (God knows which), that body upon 

* Job xxxi. 17. 



I 



ETERNITT. 85 

wMch you tread now — ^that body wMch 
now, whilst I speak, is mouldering and 
crumbling into less and less dust, and so 
hath some motion, though no life ; that 
body, which was the tabernacle of a holy 
soul, and a temple of the Holy Ghost ; that 
body, which was eyes to the blind and 
hands and feet to the lame whilst it lived, 
and being dead, is so still, by having been so 
lively an example to teach others to be so, 
that body, at last, shall have her last expec- 
tation satisfied, and dwell bodily, with that 
righteousness, in these new heavens and new 
earth, forever and ever, and ever, and in- 
finite and super-infinite evers." 

Isaak "Walton "saw and heard"— he in- 
forms us—" Mr. John Donne weep and 
preach" this sermon. It was published in 
the same year, with some Latin and Greek 
verses by George Herbert, to the memory of 
his parent. Our extracts are taken from 
the reprint in the sixth volume of the com- 

8 



86 A LOKG AND DEAR FRIENDSHIP. 

plete edition of Donne's "Works, edited by 
the Eev. Henry Alford, Dean of Canter- 
bury."^ 

The preacher survived the lady whose 
virtues he so eloquently commemorated 
about three years. His intimacy with her 
son continued unimj^aired to the last. " It 
was," Walton remarks, " a long and dear 
friendship, made up by such a sympathy of 
inclinations, that they coveted and joyed to 
be in each other's company ; and this happy 
friendship was still maintained by many sa- 
cred endearments." One of these was the 
presentation by Donne, not long before his 
death, to Herbert, of one of a few seals, of 
heliotrope or bloodstone, on which he had 
caused to be engraved " a figure of the body 
of Christ extended upon an anchor." These 
were sent to his particular friends, among 

^' The verses are reprinted in the exceUent edition of 
Herbert's "Remains," published at London, in 1836, 
by WiUiam Pickering. 



A PRESENT. 87 

W-hom are enumerated the great names of Sir 
Henry TV^otton, Bishop Hall, Dr. Diippa, 
Bishop King, and George Herbert. The seal 
sent to Herbert was accompanied by some 
verses, a portion of which we extract. 

TO MR. GEORaE HERBERT, 

SENT HIM WITH ONE OF MT SEALS OF THE ANCHOR AND 

CHEIST. 

Adopted in God's family, and so 
My old coat lost, into new arms I go. 
The cross my seal in baptism spread below, 
Does by that form into an anchor grow. 
Crosses grow anchors, bear as thou shonldst do 
Thy cross, and that cross grows an anchor too. 



This gift was fonnd, after ]Mr. Her- ^ 
bert's death, wi^apped np with these 
couplets : 




** When my dear friend could write no more, 
He gave this seal, and so gave o'er. 
When winds and waves rise highest, I am sure 
TAis anchor keeps my faith, that me secure.' ' 

Onr engraving of the seal is copied from 
a drawing in the .London Gentleman's Mag- 



88 THE SEAL. 

azine, said to have been taken from an im- 
pression of the one actually presented by Dr. 
Donne to Mr. Herbert. It differs in shape 
only from the small oval representation en- 
graved in the editions of Walton's Life. 



CHAPTEE Vn. 



4t. 



ME. HEEBEET's illness — YISITS TO "VYOODFOED AND 



INTO HEEBEET— Walton's account of theie mae- 

EIED LIFE — bishop SANDEESON. 

¥E next hear of Mr. Herbert in the year 
1629, when he was obHged, in conse- 
quence of a severe ague, to seek a change of 
air. He became the guest of his brother. Sir 
Henry Herbert, at "Woodford, Essex, where 
he passed a twelyemonth. He suffered at 
times severely from his disease, but always 
preserved patience and resignation, showing 
himself, in the happy phrase of Walton, "in- 
clinable to bear the sweet yoke of Christian 
discipline." He is said to have mastered his 
disease by forbearing from the use of any 

8^ 



90 LOED DAISTYEES. 

but salted meats. The ague was, however, 
succeeded by a worse malady, symptoms of 
consumption manifesting themselves. To 
combat this new evil, he removed to 
Dauntsey, in Wiltshire, " a noble house 
which stands in a choice air," the resi- 
dence of his friend Henry Danvers, Earl of 
Danby. 

The poet commemorated his friend in the 
following lines. They were fortunately not 
needed for their apparent purpose until long 
after the time of their composition, as the 
Earl did not die before the twentieth day of 
January, 1673. 

ON LOED DANVEES. 

Sacred marble, safely keep 

His dust, who under thee must sleep 

Until the years again restore 

Their dead, and time shall be no more. 

Meanwhile, if he (which all tilings wears) 

Does ruin thee, or if thy tears 

Are shed for him, dissolve thy frame. 

Thou art requited ; for his fame, 

His virtue, and his worth shall be 

Another monument to thee. 



APFLICTION. 91 

The " choice air" of Daiintsey, aided by 
moderate exercise, careful diet, and mental 
repose, soon produced its usual beneficial 
effect. 

One of his finest poems, entitled Afflic- 
Tio:^-, was, it is thought, composed about this 
time : 

When first thou did'st entice to thee my heart, 

I thought the service brave ; 
So many joys I writ down for my part, 

Besides what I might have 
Out of my stock of natural delights, 
Augmented with thy gracious benefits. 

c- c- c- ^' c- 

At first thou gavest me milk ^d sweetnesses ; 

I had my wish and way : 
My days were strew' d with flowers and happiness ; 

There was no month but May. 
But with my years sorrow did twist and grow. 
And made a party imawares for woe. 

My flesh began unto my soul in pain, 

Sicknesses clave my bones. 
Consuming agues dwell in every vein, 

And turn my breath to groans : 
Sorrow was all my soul ; I scarce believed, 
Till grief did tell me roundly, that I lived. 
9 c- « s e 



92 EMPLOYISIENT, AKD 3^IA]Sr. 

Whereas my birth and spirit rather took 
The way that takes the town, 

Thou didst betray me to a lingering book, 
And wrap me in a gown : 

I was entangled in the world of strife, 

Before I had the pov^er to change my life. 
^ o o o . o 

Now I am here, what thou wilt do with me 
None of my books will show : 

I read, and sigh, and wish I were a tree ; 
For sure then I should grow 

To fruit or shade : at least some bird would trust 

Her household to me, and I should be just. 

Yet, though thou troublest me, I must be meek ; 

In weakness must be stout. 
Well, I will change the service, and go seek 

Some other master out. 
Ah, my dear God ! though I am clean forgot, 
Let me not love tHee, if I love thee not. 

Several of his poems exhibit a similar 
vein of feeling. In "Employment" he nobly 
remarks : 

Life is a business, not good cheer ; 
Ever in wars. 

In "Man:" 

More servants wait on man 
Than he'll take notice of ; in every path 
He treads down that which doth befriend him, 
When sickness makes him pale and wan. 



CHAELES DAISTYERS. 93 

In " Frailty" lie strikingly contrasts " both 
regiments :" 

The world's and Thine, 
Thine clad with simpleness and sad events, 
The other fine.* 

It was during Ms stay at Dauntsey that Mr, 
Herbert first met his future wife. The story 
of the wooing and winning is a pleasant one. 

The lady, Jane Danvers, was one of the 
nine daughters of Mr. Charles Danvers, of 
Sainton, a gentleman of fortune and high 
social position, a near relative and neigh- 
bor of the Earl of Danbv. He was inti- 
mately acquainted with Mr. Herbert, and 
so much pleased with his manners and char- 
acter, that he frequently expressed a hope 
that his young friend might marry one of his 
daughters, "but rather his daughter Jane 

^- How the blessed names of those who have suffered 
and died in defence of our religion, arise to our remem- 
brance, when we read these words ! We think of Lati- 
mer, of Cranmer, and Ridley, and the glorious company 
of sainted martyrs, whom they guided unto eternal glory. 
— WiUmott's Lives of the Sacred Poets, 



94 A PREPAOJATION FOR A MAEKIAGE. 

than any other, because. Jane was his be- 
loved daughter." He praised Jane to Mr. 
Herbert and Mr. Herbert to Jane, and ex- 
pressed his wishes freely to both. This, as 
Mr. "Walton remarks, was " a fair preparation 
for a marriage." The father, however, died 
before any other steps were taken in the 
matter, and before Mr. Herbert removed to 
Dauntsey. Some friends of the family, how- 
ever, remembering the father's wishes, and 
agreeing in his opinion, in this respect, of the 
fitness of things, procured a meeting between 
the two. 

The lady is described by Aubrey, a rela- 
tive, who probably knew her well, in quaint 
old terms of high commendation, as a "hand- 
some hona Toba^ and generose." The same 

<-" Aubrey applies the same teim to the celebrated 
beauty, Lady Venetia Stanley, the wife of Sir Kenelm 
Digby . * ' She had a perfect healthy constitution ; strong ; 
good skin ; well proportioned ; enclining to a Bona Roba." 
(Lives, etc., II., 332.) He seems to mean by it a fuU, 
well-rounded figure. 



A HAPPY PAIR. 95 

writer informs us tliat Mr. Herbert possessed 
" a very fine complexion." He is portrayed 
to ns by Walton as being " of a stature inclin- 
ing towards tallness ; bis body was very 
straight, and so far from being cmnbered 
with too much flesh, that he was lean to an 
extremity." 

The result soon proved that the pair liked 
one another as much as had been anticipated, 
for on the third day after this first interview 
the lady " changed her name into Herbert." 
The romantic marriage " turned out" most 
happily. ^^The eternal lover of mankind," 
Walton beautifully remarks, " made them 
happy in each other's mutual and equal 
affections and compliance ; indeed, so happy 
that there never was any opposition betwixt 
them, unless it were a contest which should 
most incline to a compliance with the other's 
desires. And though this begot, and con- 
tinued in them, such a mutual love, and joy, 
and content, as was no way defective ; yet 



96 BISHOP sakderson's wife. 

this mutual content^ and love, and joy, did 
receive a daily augmentation, by such daily 
obligingness to each otliei* as still added such 
new affluences to the former fulness of these 
divine souls, as was only improvable in 
heaven, where they now enjoy it." We may 
be allowed to add to this passage another by 
the same writer, equally happy in applica- 
tion and expression, on the marriage of his 
friend, Bishop Sanderson. " The Giver of 
all good things was so good to him as to give 
him such a wife as was suitable to his own 
desires ; a wife that made his life happy, by 
being always content when he was cheerful ; 
that was always cheerful when he was con- 
tent; that divided her joys with him, and 
abated of his sorrow, by bearing a part of 
that burden; a wife that demonstrated her 
affection by a cheerful obedience to all his 
desires, during tJie whole course of his life ; 
and at his death, too, for she outlived him. 



CHAPTEK Yin. 

BEMEETON — KING CHAELES' ADMIEATION OF HEEBEET— 
" SPIEITUAL COXELICTS" — BISHOP LArD — ME. HEE- 

BEEt's IKDUCTIOX " TOLLIXa THE BELL'^ A EETEO- 

SPECT THE " MIXISTEE's "WIFE " COMFOETABLE 

SPEECH TO AN OLD T70MAN — -THE PAEISH CHUECH AXD 
PAESOXAGE EEPAIEED THE FIEST SEEMOX. 

ABOUT tliree months after Mr. Herbert's 
marriage, the parish of Bemerton be- 
came yacant by the appointment of the rector. 
Dr. Curie, to the Bishopric of Bath and 
Wells. Philip, Earl of Pembroke (the suc- 
cessor of "William, now dead), requested the 
King to bestow the living on his kinsman, 
Herbert. " Most willingly to Mr. Herbert, 
if it be worth his acceptance," was the kind 
reply. It shows the monarch's high appre- 
ciation of the poet and scholar. We meet 
with another proof of this feeling many years 

9 



98 SPmiTUAL CONFLICTS. 

after. During the Bang's imprisonment by 
the parliamentarian party, then in power, 
the Poems of George Herbert, with the Bible 
and two or three other books, were his con- 
stant companions.^ 

Mr. Herbert seems to have been, much 
perplexed as to whether he should accept or 
decline the position tendered to him. The 
responsibility of the care of souls weighed 
heavily on his conscientious and sensitive 
mind. He considered the question, with 
fasting and prayer, for over a month, suifer- 
ing, as he often remarked, "such sj)iritual 
conflicts as none can think but only those 
that have endured them." 

Mr. Herbert was at this time spending the 
pleasant season following his marriage with 
his wife's relations at Sainton. Plere he 



•-' WiUmott's Lives of the Sacred Poets. The King's 
copy of Herbert is said to have been preserved, and was 
at one time in the library of * ' Tom Martin of Palgrave. ' ' 
— Dihdins Library Companion. 



BISHOP LArD. 99 

received tlie congratulations of " his own and 
his father's friend," Mr. Arthur Woodnot, 
who had made a journey expressly on this 
pleasant errand. After the friends had " re- 
joiced together some few days," they visited 
Wilton Hall, the noble country seat of the 
Pembrokes, where the Earl was at that time 
entertaining the King and court. Mr. Her- 
bert, in presenting his thanks to the Earl for 
the appointment to Bemerton, acquainted 
him with his doubts as to his acceptance. 
The Earl, sensible of his kinsman's fitness, 
laid the matter before Dr. Laud, then Bishop 
of London, who afterwards, as Archbishop of 
Canterbmy, suffered on the scaffold for his 
attachment to the Church of England, and 
his occasionally unwise administration of her 
affairs. 

The earnest prelate had an interview the 
next day with Mr. Herbert, and, says Wal- 
ton, " did so convince Mr. Herbert that the 
refusal of it was a sin^ that a tailor was sent 



100 CAKONICAL CLOTHES. 

for to come speedily from Salisbury to "Wil- 
ton, to take measure and make him canonical 
clothes against (that is, for) next day ; which 
the tailor did." If, as we may infer from 
this, we owe Herbert's acceptance of Bemer- 
ton to Archbishop Laud's influence, it is a 
service to the Church which should not be 
forgotten in our estimate of his career. 
Prompt action followed the delayed decision. 
Herbert, arrayed in the dress appropriate to 
his profession, which he does not appear to 
have previously assumed, probably following 
in this respect the custom of the day, ob- 
served by those only in Deacon's orders, 
applied immediately to Dr. Davenant, the 
Bishop of the diocese, for institution. The 
request was promptly complied with, and he 
was on the same day, April 26, 1630, induct- 
ed into "the good, and more pleasant than 
healthful. Parsonage of Bemerton." 

After his induction the new Rector was, in 
compliance with a legal requirement, left 




>;y/A;A^-'«'S' 



TOLLINa THE BELL. 101 

alone in the cliurcli to toll the bell."^ His 
friend Mr. "Woodnot, who with others was 
waiting for him outside, noticing that he re- 
mained much beyond the usnal time, looked 
in at the window and saw him prostrate on 
the ground before the altar ; " at which time 
and place (as he after told Mr. "Woodnot) he 
set some rules to himself for the future man- 

o i i The induction is to be made according to the tenor 
and language of the mandate, by vesting the incumbent 
with fuU possession of aU the profits belonging to the 
church. Accordingly the inductor usually takes the clerk 
by the hand and lays it upon the key, or upon the ring 
of the church door, or if the key cannot be had, and there 
is no ring on the door, or if the church be ruinated, then 
on any part of the wall of the church or church-yard, and 
saith to this effect : ^ By virtue of this mandate, I do in- 
duct you ill to the real, actual, and corporal possession of 
this church of C, with all the rights, profits, and appur- 
tenances thereto belonging.' After which the inductor 
opens the door, and puts the person inducted into the 
church, who usually tolls a bell to make his induction 
public and known to the parishioners— which being done, 
the clergyman who inducted indorseth a certificate of his 
induction on the archdeacon's mandate, and they who 
were presentdo testify the same under their hands." — 
Johns. i 77 ; Wats., c. 15 ; Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, 8th 
Ed., 1824, Vol. I., 173. 

9* 



102 LOOKING BACK AKD LOOKING FORWARD. 

age of his life ; and then and there made a 
VOW to labor and keep them." 

The two friends passed the evening of the 
eventful day together. In the course of their 
conversation, Mr. Herbert expressed liimself 
earnestly respecting his past life and the 
career now opening before him. " I now 
look back upon my aspiring thoughts," he 
said, " and think myself more happy than if 
I had attained what then I so ambitiously 
thirsted for. And I can now behold the 
court with an impartial eye, and see plainly 
that it is made up of fraud, and titles, and 
flattery, and many other such empty, imag- 
inary, painted pleasures — ^pleasures that are 
so empty as not to satisfy when they are en- 
joyed. But in God and his service is a ful- 
ness of all joy and pleasure and no satiety. 
And I will now use all my endeavours to 
bring my relations and dependants to a love 
and reliance on Him w^ho never fails those 
that trust him. But above all, I will be sure 



A PEIEST S WIFE. 103 

to live well, because the virtuous life of a cler- 
gyman is the most powerful eloquence to 
persuade all that see it to reverence and love, 
and this I will do, because I know we live in 
an age that hath more need of good exam- 
ples than precepts." 

The third day after his induction he re- 
turned with Mr. Woodnot to Sainton, and 
after saluting his wife, said to her, '^ You are 
now a minister's wife, and must now so far 
forget your father's house as not to claim a 
precedence of any of your parishioners ; for 
you are to know that a Priest's wife can 
challenge no precedence or place but that 
which she purchases by her obliging humil- 
ity ; and I am sure places so purchased do 
best become them. And let me tell you that 
I am so good a herald as to assure you that 
this is truth." " And she," says Walton, 
was so meek a wife as to assure him it was 
no vexing news to her, and that he should 
see her observe it with a cheerful willing- 



104 THE TraiD OLD WOMAIT. 

ness. And, indeed, her unforced liiimility, 
that humility that was in her so original as 
to be born with her, made her so happy as 
to do so ; and her doing so begat her an un- 
feigned love, and a serviceable respect from 
all that conversed with her ; and this love 
followed her in all places as inseparably as 
shadows follow substances in sunshine." 

He soon after returned to Bemerton to 
make arrangements to repair the chancel of 
the church, and rebuild a great j)ortion of the 
parsonage, which had fallen into a ruinous 
condition, in consequence of the former rec- 
tor having resided at a better house at Minal, 
some sixteen or twenty miles distant. AVhile 
occupied about this examination, he was ac- 
costed by an old woman who came to him 
for relief for her troubles of body and mind, 
but was so humble and timid, that '' after she 
had spoke some few words to him she was 
surprised with a fear, and that begot a short- 
ness of breath, so that her spirits and speech 



(X)MFORT AND CASH. 105 

failed her." Mr. Herbert perceiving this, 
took her by the hand and reassured her with 
these kind words : " Speak, good mother ; 
be not afraid to speak to me, for I am a man 
that will hear yon with patience, and will re- 
lieve yonr necessities too, if I be able ; and 
this I will do willingly ; and therefore, moth- 
er, be not afraid to acquaint me with what 
you desire." " After which comfortable 
speech," says Walton, " he again took her by 
the hand, made her sit down by him, and 
understanding she was of his parish, he told 
her ' he would be acquainted with her, and 
take her into his care ;' and having with pa- 
tience heard and understood her wants (and 
it is some relief for a poor body to be but 
heard with patience), he, like a Christian 
clergyman, comforted her by his meek be- 
havior and counsel ; but because that cost 
him nothing, he relieved her with money too, 
and so sent her home with a cheerful heart, 
praising God and praying for him." On his 



106 INSCEIPTION m THE PAESONAGE. 

return to Bainton in the evening, lie men- 
tioned the incident to his wile ; she, like a 
good help-mate, sympathizing with and aid- 
ing her husband in his good endeavors, went 
the next day to Salisbury, where she pur- 
chased a pair of blankets, which were sent to 
the old woman, who, in this comfortable 
plight, disappears from our history. 

The parish church, under Mr. Herbert's 
active supervision, was soon repaired. He 
also constructed, on the ruins of the old par- 
sonage, a new and commodious edifice of 
brick, with a handsome garden. The follow- 
ing inscription was placed, by his direction, 
over the mantel of the chimney in the hall. 

TO MY SUCCESSOR. 
If thou chance for to find 
A new house to thy mind, 
And built without thy cost : 

Be good to the poor, 

As God gives thee store, 
And then my labor's not lost. 

Mr. Herbert received Priest's orders soon 



A FIRST SEEMON. 107 

after bis induction, his friend Dr. Humphrey 
Henchman, afterwards Bishop of London, 
taking part in the ceremonies. 

The new rector took the text for his first 
sermon from the Proverbs of Solomon, " Keep 
thy heart with all diligence." It was, says 
Walton, " deliyered after a most florid man- 
ner, both with great learning and eloquence." 
At its close he told his hearers " That should 
not be his constant way of preaching ; for 
since Almighty God does not intend to lead 
men to heaven by hard questions, he would 
not therefore fill their heads with unnecessary 
notions, but that, for their sakes, his language 
and his expressions should be more plain and 
practical in his future sermons." He then 
dismissed them, with an urgent request to be 
constant in theii* attendance on the afternoon 
service and catechising. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

A SITSDAT AT BE:MEETO>r IN 1839 — TVXLTOX HALL — THE 
NEW HEEBEET *^ TEMPLE '' — A PEEP THEOUGn A WIN- 
DOW. 

BEMEETOX, in which we have now found 
Mi\ Herbert firmly established, is a little 
hamlet near Salisbury, a town made mem- 
orable by the possession of one of the largest 
and most beautiful cathedrals in England or 
the world. The village church is as humble 
as the place, being but forty-five feet in 
breadth by eighteen in length. 

An American lover of Herbert who at- 
tended divine service at the Bemerton 
church on a pleasant Sunday morning in the 
autumn of 1S39, describes the place as "a 
collection of houses and hay-stacks heaped 
together over a meadow, to the left of the 



BEMEKTO]N' HOUSES. 109^ 

road. They looked appropriate, and I wa& 
willing to accept them for the spot. It was 
Bemerton. A rudely-kept cart-track led 
down to a little irregular street of thatched 
houses, inclosed in farm-yards that made up 
all the pretensions of the parish. It was 
humble, to be sure ; but it was picturesque. 
The thatch, it could not be disputed,, was 
graceful, covering the windows and gables 
like a heavy eyebrow or a huge, projecting 
snowdrift. I took the left turning, and in a 
few steps reached the suburbs, alighting on 
a diminutive wooden bridge, which spans 
the Neder, a stream that guides the foot-pas- 
senger to Salisbury. It commanded a level 
view over deep green meadow patches to 
Salisbury Cathedral, pointing high in the air 
with surpassing beauty. But the church 
was not visible. On turning again it ap- 
peared, immediately beyond, a little j)inched, 
old-fashioned stone building, the noisy bell 
ringing, and old people crowding the porch. 

10 



110 A CONDENSED CLERK. 

The edifice stands at a triangular corner of 
the road, fenced off from the foot-path by 
gray, sunken tomb-stones. There was no 
spire, bnt a short, ventilated kind of chimney, 
out of which the bell twanged its coarse 
tones with a cracked, nasal utterance. With- 
in, the appearance was not less curious. 
It was the most diminutive of all parish 
churches. The preacher's sounding board 
projected from the very eaves of the spring- 
ing roof, and left no space below for the tip- 
toe eloquence common with many energetic 
divines. The clerk, condensed beneatli in 
the smallest compass, seemed to bolster both 
reading-desk and pulpit. The congregation 
may have numbered fifty persons ; the 
younger portion of the villagers were, doubt- 
less, withdrawn to the more imposing scenery 
of the cathedral. The clergyman wore the 
Oxford hood, and preached a practical, plain 
sermon worthy of Herbert himself At the 
time of singing the psalm and hymn there 



TUENINa TO THE EAST. Ill 

was, instead, a decent pause for several 
minutes. At tlie Creed, all turned to the east 
and bowed."^ The children of the parish 
were gathered about the chancel, and after 
the service, were directly questioned on 
the Catechism — an institution that Herbert 
in his ' Country Parson' lays much stress 
upon."f 

It was the good fortune of the present 
writer to visit Bemerton on a pleasant morn- 
ing of July, 1848. It was the crowning 
pleasure of a day crowded with enjoyment. 
I rose at an early hour to accomplish betimes 
the long ride to Stonehenge. On my return 
I diverged from my route to visit the 
localities made interesting to me by their 
connection with the career of George Her- 



^'^ The reverential and beautifuUy significant custom of 
facing the East during the recital of the Creed is observed 
in all the cathedrals and many of the parish churches of 
England. 

t Arcturus. Vol. L, p. 268. 



112 WILTON HALL. 

bert, as well as their own intrinsic attrac- 
tions. I visited Wilton Hall, to which the 
reader has been already introduced. Great 
changes have been made in the edifice ; but it 
is still in the possession of the Herb'erts. The 
ancient courteous kindness has descended 
with the ancient domain to the present own- 
ers. The family being at home at the time of 
my visit, the house was not, as at other sea- 
sons, open to the curious gaze of the tourist ; 
but an exception was made in favor of the 
remote and honored birthplace of the trav- 
eller, and I was permitted to examine at will 
the pictures and other treasures of art gath- 
ered under the ancestral roof b}^ the success- 
ive generations of tasteful occupants. One 
of the apartments contained, as I fancied, a 
mute evidence of the courtesy of which I 
have spoken. A work-basket, with its house- 
wifely appurtenances, and a piece of needle- 
work, with the bright little implement of 
female industry arrested in mid career, 



WILTON CHUECH. 113 

soemed to indicate tliat a lady had hastily 
vacated her own parlor to afford an un- 
known stranger the opportunity of studying 
in unembarrassed ease the matchless paint- 
ings which clothed its walls. 

A twin wonder with Wilton Hall is the 
new church, erected from the unaided re- 
sources of his private fortune by a member 
of this noble family, Mr. Sidney Herbert, 
who combines in his name the memory of 
two of the ixiost distinguished among his 
honored ancestors. The edifice is in the 
early Italian style, with round arches and a 
square, lofty campanile or tower connected 
with the church by a short covered passage. 
It is enriched with mosaics from Rome, 
choice foreign and native marbles ; with 
walls and windows brilliant with p-ildino; and 
color, forming a combination of grandem* 
and beauty almost unsurpassed even in 
richly-stored England. It seemed an em- 
bodiment of the poetical '^ Temple" of 



114 A GLIMPSE. 

George Herbert, to which we shall soon in- 
troduce our readers. 

A short ride brought me to the turn in the 
road within whose protecting elbow stands 
the little chapel of Herbert. My brother's 
brief description has given the reader, in 
snfl&cient detail, the simple features of the 
edifice. There was no one at hand to unlock 
the door; the exigencies of my journey per- 
mitted but a brief delay, and I had to con- 
tent myself with a glimpse through the small 
windows placed one on each side of the 
edifice. The entrance, as usual in English 
parish churches, is through a porch. I could 
see nothing within but plain walls and wood- 
work ; but these, in their bare simplicity, 
were clothed with beauty from the memories 
which hung about them. 

The church has been much altered since 
Herbert's day. Two decorated Gothic win- 
dows, dating from about the commencement 
of the fourteenth century, on the south and 



CHUKCH AND PARSONAGE. 115 

west sMes, still remain. The east window is 
modern. The walls have been repaired with 
brick work. The bell in the little turret is 
of the fourteenth century, and twenty-four 
inches in diameter. The font is also ancient. 
The sittings are modern, and of " unpainted 
deal."* 

The parsonage is only forty feet (the width 
of the road in Mr. Herbert's time) from the 
church. The parts rebuilt by Herbert can still 
be traced ; but his inscription has disappeared. 
A grass plot on the south side slopes down 
to the river, and commands a fine view of 
Salisbury Cathedral in the distance. A fig- 
ti'ee at the end of the house and a medlar in 
the garden, are said to have been j^lanted by 
Mr. Herbert.f 

«- Notes and Queries, II., 414. f lb., II., 460. 



V 



CHAPTEE X. 



MR. HERBEET S 

PEAKL" DAILY PEAYER3 AT BEMERTOX — ''MR. HER- 
BERT'S saixt's bell'' — cnuRcn music — wayside 

TEACHINGS CATECHISIXG — THE " POOR MAX WITH A 

POORER horse'' — ''MUSIC AT MIDXIGHt" — MR. HER- 
BERT'S EEVEREXCE AXD LOTE OF THE BIBLE. 



M 



,. E. HERBEET'S removal to Bemerton 



severed liis connection with Cambridge. 
The separation must have been painful ; the 
sacrifice felt. He gave u^) the great libraries 
dear to an inquiring student, and a society 
of living men equal in attractiveness to tliese 
silent companions of his bookish hours. 
Milton and Jeremv Tavlor were inmates of 
its classic lialls, fair youths, already giving 
bright promise of their future glory. Thomas 
Fuller was commencing liis career as a great 



COLLEGE FEIE]S^DS. 117 

scholar, and enlivening his fello^vs by his 
rare wit. Herrick, the song writer, Giles 
and his brother Phineas Fletcher, both to be 
afterwards known as sacred poets, were 
among his contemporaries, and not improb- 
ably his friends.'^ John Cotton, Thomas 
Hooker, and several others, men of worth 
and intellect, who were, a few years later, to 
take a prominent part in the history of our 
countiy, and give to our first college the 
revered name of their beloved Alma Mater, 
were also there, receiving the kindly culture 
of the Church, in whose doctrine and fellow- 
ship, but for the unwise rigor of men in 
power, they would probably have continued 
to their lives' end. 

In one of his choicest productions, written 
probably about this period, our poet has 
alluded to these past experiences of his 
Hfe: 

o Willmott's Lives of the Sacred Poets. 



118 THE PEARL. 

THE PEARL. 
Matt. xiii. 
I know the ways of learning ; both the head 
And pipes that feed the press, and make it run ; 
What reason hath from nature borrowed, 
Or of itself, like a good housewife, spun 
In laws and policy ; what the stars conspire, 
What willing nature speaks, what forced by fire ; 
Both the old discoveries and the new found seas,-^ 
The stock and surplus, cause, and history ; 
All these stand open, or I have the keys : 

Yet I love thee. 

I know the waj^s of honor, what maintains 
The quick returns of courtesy and wit : 
In view of favours whetherf party gains, 
When glory swells the heart and mouldeth it 
To all expressions both of hand and eye, 
Which on the world a true-love knot may tie, 
And bear the bundle, wheresoe'er it goes : 
How many drams of spirit there must be 
To sell my life unto my friends or foes : 

Yet I love thee. 

I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains, 
The hillings and the relishes of it ; 
The propositions of hot blood and brains ; 
What mirth and music mean ; what love and mt 

•"• One of many allusions to the American discoveries, 
which were regarded by all the great men of the time as 
one of the chief glories of their age. 

f Whichever. 



TEXTS FEOM THE GOSPELS. 119 

Have done these twenty hundred years and more : 
I know the projects of unbridled store : 
My stuff is flesh, not brass ; my senses live, 
And grumble oft, that they have more in me 
Than he that curbs them, being but one to five : 

Yet I love thee. 

I know all these, and have them in my hand : 
Therefore not sealed, but with open eyes, 
I fly to thee, and fully understand 
w Both the main sale, and the commodities ; 
And at what rate and price I have thy love ; 
"With all the circumstances that may move : 
Yet through the labyrinths, not my groveling wit, 
But thy silk-twist let down from Heaven to me. 
Did both conduct and teach me, how by it, 

To climb to thee. 

Mr. Herbert devoted himself with un- 
tiring energy to the duties of his calling. 
The text of his weekly sermon — the Cate- 
chism taking the place of a discourse in 
the afternoon service — was always selected 
from the Gospel for the day. He took 
especial pains to explain to his hearers the 
signiiicancy of the various portions of the 
Church services, and of the different seasons 
of the ritual year. His instructions are set 



120 ]vm. heebert's saint's bell. 

fortli by Walton in a beautiful passage, justly- 
regarded as one of the finest expositions of 
the Church service, and the manner in which 

As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year. 

His chapel was opened every day for 
morning and evening prayer " at the ca- 
nonical hours of ten and four." His own 
family were constant in their attendance, 
and their good example was generally fol- 
lowed by the parishioners. '^^Some of the 
humble farm laborers, we are told, '' did so 
love and reverence Mr. Herbert that they 
would let their plough rest when Mr. Her- 
bert's Saint's bell rung to prayers, that they 
might also offer their devotions to God with 
him ; and w^ould then return back to their 
plough. And his most holy life was such 
that it begot such reverence to God and to 
him, that they thought themselves the haj)j)ier 
when they carried Mr. Herbert's blessing 
back with them to their labour." His brother 
Edward writes to the same effect : " His hfe 



PEAYER ^ND CATHEDRAI. MUSIC. 121 

was most holy and exemplary, in so much 
that about Salisbury, where he lived bene- 
ficed for many years, he was little less than 
sainted." 

The recreations of a good man take their 
tone from his duties, and thus advance, 
rather than retard, as is often the case with 
the selfish pleasures of the world, his pro- 
gress in holiness. Mr. Herbert delighted in 
the angelic gratification of music. '' H. Al- 
len, of Dauntsey, who was well acquainted 
with him," told Aubrey, " that he had a very 
good hand on tli^JLate, and that he sett his 
own lyricks or sacred poems." He usually 
walked twice in every week to Salisbury to 
join in the choral service of the Cathedral, 
and was wont to say on his return, " That his 
time spent in prayer and cathedral music 
elevated his soul, and was his heaven upon 
earth." He would frequently, before return- 
ing from Salisbury, " sing and play his part 
at an appointed private music meeting ;" re- 

11 



122 SERMo:sr heaeees akd fish. 

marking often tliat " Religion does not ban- 
ish mirth, but only moderates and sets rules 
to it." 

His ordinary walks even seem, like all the 
actions of his life, to have been the means 
of good to others. It was his courteous 
practice to enter into conversation with those 
he met by the way. On one occasion we 
find him overtaking a gentleman belonging 
to Salisbury, and engaging in religious con- 
versation, with the happy remark, " that 
there be some sermon-hearers that be like 
those fishes that always- live in salt water, 
and yet are always fresh." Mr. Herbert, we 
are told, " asked him some needful questions, 
and having received his answer, gave him 
such rules for the trial of his sincerity, and 
for a practical piety, and in so loving and 
meek a manner that the gentleman did so 
fall in love with him and his discourse, tliat 
he would often contrive to meet him in his 
walk to Salisburv or to attend him back to 



THE DIJTY OF CATECHISING. 123^ 

Bemerton, and still mentions the name of 
Mr. George Herbert with veneration, and 
still praiseth God for the occasion of knowing 
him." 

At another time we find him falling in 
with a brother clergyman, and in the course 
of their conversation on " the decay of piety 
and too general contempt of the clergy,'^ 
urging that " one cure for these distempers 
would be for the clergy themselves to keep 
the Ember weeks strictly, and beg of their 
parishioners to join with them in fasting and 
prayers for a more religious clergy. 

"And another cure," he continues, " would 
be for themselves to restore the great and 
neglected duty of catechising, on which the 
salvation of so many of the poor and igno- 
rant lay-people does depend ; but principally 
that the clergy themselves would be sure to 
live unblamably." 

The third of these pleasant wayside in- 
cidents is so delightfully related by Wal- 



124 DISRESPECT TO THE CLOTH. 

ton, that we must borrow liis entire narr 
rative : 

" In another walk to Salisbury he saw a 
poor man with a poorer horse, that was fallen 
nnder his load ; they were both in distress, 
and needed present help, which Mr. Herbert 
perceiving, put off his canonical coat, and 
helped the poor man to unload, and after to 
load his horse. The poor man blessed him 
for it, and he blessed the poor man ; and was 
60 like the good Samaritan, that he gave him 
money to refresh both himself and his horse ; 
and told him, ' that if he loved himself he 
should be merciful to his beast.' Thus he 
left the poor man, and at his coming to his 
musical friends at Salisbury, they began to 
wonder that Mr. George Herbert, wlio used 
to be so trim and clean, came into that com- 
pany so soiled and discomposed ; but he told 
them the occasion. And when one of tlie 
company told him ' he had disparaged him- 
self by so dirty an employment,' his answer 



MUSIC AT I^nDNIGHT. 125 

was ' that the thought of what he had done 
would prove music to him at midnight ; and 
that the omission of it would have upbraided 
and made discord in his conscience, whenso- 
ever he should pass by that place. For if I 
be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I 
am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in 
my power, to practise what I pray for. And 
though I do not wish for the like occasion 
every day, yet let me tell you, I would not 
willingly pass one day of my life without 
comforting a sad soul, or showing mercy ; 
and I praise God for this occasion. And 
now let us tune our instruments.' " 

An interesting addition to our biographical 
knowledge of Mr. Herbert is given us by his 
friend Ferrar. " To testify," he says, " his 
independency upon all others, and to quicken 
his diligence in this kind [his Christian call- 
ing], he used, in his ordinary speech, when he 
made mention of the blessed name of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, to add, My Master. 

11* 



126 LOVE OF THE BIBLE. 

" Next God, he loved that which God him- 
self hath magnified above all things — that is, 
his Word : so, as he hath been heard to make 
solemn protestation, that he would not part 
with one leaf thereof for the whole world, if 
it were offered him in exchange."'"^ 

•^ Preface to The Temple. 



CHAPTEE XI. 



THE COUNTEY PAESON — " SHAVEfTGS OF GOLd" — THE 
APPAEEL AND HOUSEKEEPING " THE 



"WASTING OF DISEASE. 

IT was during this period that Mr. Herbert 
wrote his admirable little prose work, " A 
Priest to the Temple ; or, the Country Par- 
son, his Character and Rule of Holy Life." 
It was written solely with a yiew to his own 
improvement in the duties of his sacred call- 
ing. "I have resolved," he says in the brief 
preliminary address of " The Author to the 
Reader," " to set down the form and character 
of a true pastor, that I may have a mark to 
aim at ; which also I will set as high as I 
can, since he shoots higher that threatens the 



128 SHATrS"aS OF GOLD. 

moon, than lie that AJm^; at a tree.* Xot 
that I think that if a man do not all which 
is here expressed, he presently sins and dis- 
pleases God ; bnt that it is a good strife to 
go as far as we can in pleasing of him who 
hath done so much for ns," 

This little volume was not published nntQ 
1652. Fuller, writing a little before this date 
remarks, in his Church History, "It much 
contenteth me that I am certainly informed 
that the posthume remains (shavings of gold 
are carefalijr to be kept) of that not less pious 
than witty writer, are shortly to be put forth 
into print.'' The "Country Parson^' has 
been several times "put forth into print' 
within the present century, and can be ob- 
tained at a m^xlerate price. It is a book for 

«His Clmich Porch in ''The Temple'' contains the 
same ^ncy: 

" Pitch thy behaTioor low, thj projects hi^h ; 
So shsilt thou himible and magnanimous be : 
Smk not in spirit : who aimeth at the skv 
Shoots higher much than he that means a tree." 



APPAEEL AJSTD FUEIN^ITURE. 129 

the laity as well as the clergy, for most if not 
all of the incidents of parochial life have a 
common interest and impose a common ob- 
ligation. 

The volume furnishes many valuable hints 
to the biographer ; for Herbert has drawn 
many of the traits of his " Country Parson" 
from his own tastes. The parson's apparel 
is "plain, but reverend and clean, without 
spots, or dust, or smell; the purity of his 
mind breaking out, and dilating itself even 
to his body, clothes, and habitation."- " The 
furniture of his house is very plain, but 
clean, whole, and sweet — as sweet as his 
garden can make ; for he hath no money for 
such things, charity being his only perfume, 
which deserves cost when he can spare it. 
His fare is plain and common, but whole- 



•'^ This was a favorite idea, which he has also expressed 
among the counsels of ' ' The Church Porch : ' ' 

" Let thy mind's sweetness have his operation 
Upon thy body, clothes, and habitation." 



130 INSTRUCTION. 

some ; what he hath is little, but very good. 
It consisteth most of mutton, beef, and veal ; 
if* he adds anything for a great day or a 
stranger, his garden or orchard supplies it, 
or his barn and yard. He goes no further 
for any entertainment, lest he go into the 
world, esteeming it absurd that he should 
exceed who teacheth others temperance." 

" Those (of his servants) that can read are 
allowed times for it, and those that cannot 
are taught ; for all in his house are either 
teachers, or learners, or both, so that his 
family is a school of religion, and they all 
account, that to teach the ignorant is the 
greatest alms. Even the walls are not idle ; 
but something is written or painted there, 
which may excite the reader to a thought of 
piety; especially the 101st Psalm, which is 
expressed in a fair table as being the rule of 
a family." 

This idea of turning walls to a good in- 
structive account was a favorite with him. 



TEXTS UPON WALLS. 131 

We have already spoken of his legacy of ad- 
vice to his successor in the Parsonage. His 
chnrch was similarly ornamented. " In the 
chancel/' says Aubrey, " are many apt sen- 
tences of the Scripture. At his wife's seat, 
' My life is hid with Christ in God.' (Coloss. 
iii. 3.) Above, in a little window blinded, 
within a veil, ^Thou art my hiding-place.'" 
The first-named passage has also furnished a 
text for one of his poems. 

" The Country Parson, as soon as he 
awakes on Sunday morning, presently falls 
to work, and seems to himself so as a market- 
man is, when the market-day comes, or a 
shop-keeper, when customers use to come in. 
His thoughts are full of making the best of 
the day, and contriving it to his best gains. 
To this end, besides his ordinary prayers, he 
makes a peculiar one for a blessing on the 
exercises of the day. This done, he sets him- 
self to the consideration of the duties of the 
day, and if there be any extraordinary addi- 



132 SIJKDAY EMPLOYMENT. 

tion to the customary exercises, either from 
the time of the year, or from the state, or 
from. God, by a child born or dead, or any 
other accident, he contrives how, and in 
what manner, to induce it to the best ad- 
vantage. Afterwards, when the hour calls, 
with his family attending him, he goes to 
church, at his first entrance humbly adoring 
and worshipping the invisible majesty and 
presence of Almighty God, and blessing the 
people either openly or to himself. Then 
having read divine service twice fully, and 
preached in the morning and catechized in 
the afternoon, he thinks he hath, in some 
measure, according to poor and frail man, 
discharged the public duties of the congrega- 
tion. The rest of the day he spends either 
in reconciling neighbours that are at variance, 
or in visiting the sick, or in exhortations to 
some of his flock by themselves, whom his 
sermons cannot, or do not, reach. And 
every one is more awaked when we come 



SUKBAY ETEKINGS. ' 133 

and say : ' Thou art the man.' This way he 
finds exceeding nseful and winning ; and 
these exhortations he calls his privy pnrse^ 
even as princes have theirs, besides their 
public disbursements. ^ At night he thinks it 
a very fit time, both suitable to the joy of 
the day, and without hindrance to public 
duties, either to entertain some of his neigh- 
bours, or to be entertained of them, where 
he takes occasion to discourse of such things 
as are both profitable and pleasant, and to 
raise up their minds to apprehend God's 
good blessing to our Church and State ; that 
order is kept in the one and peace in the 
other, without disturbance or interruption of 
public divine ofiices. As he opened the day 
with prayer, so he closeth it, humbly beseech- 
ing the Almighty to pardon and accept our 
poor services, and to improve them, that we 
may grow therein, and that our feet may be 
like hinds' feet, ever climbing up higher and 
higher unto him." 

12 



134 DECAY. 

Did our plan permit, we might, in this 
manner, follow the Country Parson through 
his weekly round of duties, well assured that 
in doing so we should still be in the com- 
pany of Mr. George Herbert, as we shall 
never find him far behind his own or any 
other's ideal of a Christian walk and con- 
versation. We have quoted enough, we 
hope, to make the reader wish lor more^ and 
he will, we trust, not be satisfied until he 
has sought, found, and read Mr. Herbert's 
little book from beginning to end. 

Unfortunately for the world, this life of 
goodness was to be of short duration. Con- 
sumptive symptoms again appeared. Mr. 
Herbert became so weak as to be unable to 
read prayers twice a day without painful 
effort. His wife perceiving that he was thus 
exhausting his little strength, told him that 
it " wasted his spirits and weakened him." 
He confessed that this was so ; but added, 
" his life could not be better spent than in 



MR. BOSTOCK. 135 

the service of his Master, Jesus, who had 
done and suffered so much for him. But," 
said he, "I will not be wilful; for, though 
my spirit be willing, yet I find my flesh is 
weak ; and therefore Mr. Bostock shall be 
appointed to read prayers for me to-morrow, 
and I will be now only a hearer of them, till 
this mortal shall put on immortality." Mr. 
Bostock was an old friend of Mr. Herbert's, 
and his curate or assistant at Fulston parish 
church, to which Bemerton was a chapel. 
He undertook the assigned duty on the fol- 
lowing day, and continued it until Mr. Her- 
bert's decease. 



CHAPTEE Xn. 



ME. NICHOLAS FEEEAR — THE YIEGINIA COMPANY — LITTLE 

GIDDEN DEVOTIONAL EXEECISES THE TABLET 

a 



" WHAT PEAYERS V MANUSCRIPT OF THE TEMPLE. 

ME. HEKBEET had maintained for many 
years a warm friendship with an as- 
sociate of his University days, Mr. Nicholas 
Ferrar,* 



o < ' There is another thing (some wiU caU it a paradox) 
which I learned from him (and Mr. Ferrar) in the 
managery of their most cordial and Christian friendship. 
That this may be maintained in vigour and height with- 
out the ceremonies of visits and compliments ; yea, with- 
out any trade of secular courtesies, merely in order to 
spiritual edification of one another in love. I know they 
loved each other most entirely, and their very souls 
cleaved together most intimately, and drove a large 
stock of Christian intelligence together long before their 
deaths ; yet saw they not each other in many years, I 
think, scarce ever, but as members of one University, in 
their whole lives."— '0%'s Life of Herbert. 



THE YTRamiA COMPAKY. 137 

Mr. Ferrar, a gentleman of good family 
and fortune, was born on tlie twenty-second 
of November, 1592. He displayed, from 
his earliest years, great mental activity and 
deep devotional feeling. After completing 
his studies at Cambridge he passed some years 
in extensive foreign travel. On his return 
he took an active part in the management of 
the Virginia Company, conducting the corre- 
spondence with the colony, and defending 
the association from the attacks of its ene- 
mies until its arbitrary and unjust dissolu- 
tion, through the influence of the Spanish 
ambassador, by the King. He now resolved 
to withdraw from public affairs to the life of 
retirement which he had long desired. 

Mr. Ferrar purchased land yielding an in- 
come of from four to five hundred pounds a 
year, at Little Gidden, about eighteen miles 
from Cambridge, and from four to six from 
Huntingdon. His house was close to the 
parish church. Having taken Deacon's 

12^ 



138 ME. feerar's daily service. 

orders, he resolved to devote the remainder 
of his life to religious duties. His execution 
of this resolve was somewhat peculiar. 

His family numbered about thirty j)ersons, 
a portion of whom were in no way related to 
him. The household formed a sort of college 
or brotherhood. The daily routine estab- 
lished about the year 1630 was as follows: 
At the hours of ten and four Mr. Ferrar read 
prayers in the parish church, which he had 
repaired and decorated at his own expense. 
He also conducted morning service at six, in 
the church or the oratory of his house, re- 
maining often for several hours after the con- 
clusion to sing hymns and anthems with 
members of his family. They assembled 
during the day for prayer and the reading 
of the Psalms and other 23ortions of the 
Bible, and gathered together at night to read 
the Psalms which had been omitted during 
the day. When those in attendance became 
exhausted, the bell was rung " sometimes be- 



GIDDEN HALL. 139 

fore and sometimes after midniglit," and their 
places supplied by others who were in their 
turn relieved, the service being continued 
until morning, and the entire Psalter in this 
manner said or sung once in every twenty- 
four hours. 

These remarkable devotional exercises, ac- 
companied by an abstemious mode of life 
and liberal charities to the poor, became 
celebrated, and Gidden Hall was often 
visited by members of the clergy and others, 
who would pass a week or more with Mr. 
Ferrar, joining in the routine of the house. 
During the winter the exercises of the night 
were conducted in a parlor, Avarmed and ar- 
ranged for the purpose. This, in common 
with the other apartments of the house, was 
decorated with moral sentences and passages 
from Scripture on the walls. A tablet of 
brass was, at the suggestion of Mr. Herbert, 
displayed in this room, with the following 
significant inscription, approved by him : 



140 



THE TABLET. 




PAPISTS AND PURITANS. 141 

Mr. Herbert's approval of this inscriptioiij 
interesting from its dignified simplicity, 
furnishes a good example of his fair and 
candid mode of dealing in matters open to 
controversy. The erection of this tablet 
gave rise, like the other proceedings of the 
family, to much comment. They were op- 
posed, as is often the case, by persons of the 
most opposite opinions. "By some," says 
the biographer, "they were abused as Pa- 
pists ; by others, as Puritans.""^" 

An engraved portrait from a contemporary 
picture of Mr. Ferrar now lies before ns. It 
represents a singularly prepossessing counte- 
nance. The brow is ample, the features 
regular, the hair, dark and abundant, combed 
back from the forehead ; the eye singularly 
large and mild. The impression conveyed 
by the face is that of one of those quiet en- 
thusiasts who pursue their course apart 

'^ Peckard's Life of Ferrar. 



142 HOLY FRIENDSHIP. 

from the main current of human affairs, but 
with undeviating aim and a strength of pur- 
pose that current's wildest surge cannot de- 
flect a hair's breadth. The engraved seems 
an endorsement of the printed page, and, like 
many a fine portrait, furnishes one of the 
most trustworthy of our biographical author- 
ities. 

Mr. Ferrar died on the second of De- 
cember, 1637. The family remained to- 
gether, until dispersed by the parliamentary 
party during the civil wars. 

"Mr. Ferrar's and Mr. Herbert's devout 
lives were both so noted," says Walton, " that 
the general report of their sanctity gave 
them occasion to renew that slight acquaint- 
ance which was begun at their being con- 
temporaries in Cambridge ; and this new holy 
friendship was long maintained without any 
interview, but only by loving and endearing 
letters." As " one testimony of their friend- 
ship and pious designs," he mentions, that 



JOHN VALDESSO. 143 

Mr. Ferrar submitted to Mr. Herbert a trans- 
lation which he had made of "The Con- 
siderations of John Valdesso," a work he had 
met with on his travels. Yaldesso was a 
favorite courtier of the Emperor Charles the 
Fifth. After following his sovereign through 
his many long wars, he retired with him 
from the world to the monastery of Yuste, 
where he wrote the work mentioned above, 
and a translation of all St. Paul's Epistles, 
from the original into Spanish. Mr. Herbert 
returned the manuscript with many valuable 
marginal notes, and a letter, both of which 
were printed with the volume. 

" On Friday," Mr. Ferrar writes, the date 
not being given, " Mr. Mapletoft brought us 
word that Mr. Herbert was said to be past 
hope of recovery, which was very grievous 
news to us, and so much the more so, being 
altogether unexpected. We presently there- 
fore made our public supplication for his 
health in the words and manner following :" 



144 PKAYEE FOR ME. HERBEET. 

We extract a portion of the prayer, as an 
evidence of the respect and affection with 
which Mr. Herbert was regarded : 

"O most mighty God, and merciful 
Father, we most humbly beseech thee, if it 
be thy good pleasure, to continue to us that 
singular benefit which thou hast given us in 
the friendship of thy servant, our dear 
brother, who now lieth on the bed of sick- 
ness. Let him abide with us yet awhile, for 
the furtherance of our faith. "We have 
indeed deserved by our ingratitude, not 
only the loss of him, but whatever other 
opportunities thou hast given us for the at- 
tainment of our salvation. * * -J^ -^ ^ 
Lord, thou hast willed that our delights 
should be in the saints on earth, and in such 
as excel in virtue ; how then should we not 
be afflicted, and mourn when thou takest 
them away from us ! Thou hast made him 
a great help, and furtherance of the best 
things amongst us, how then can we but 



ME. duncon's visit. 145 

esteem the loss of him a chastisement from 
thy displeasure ! O Lord^ we beseech thee, 
that it may not be so ; we beseech thee, if it 
be thy good pleasure, restore unto ns our 
dear brother, by restoring to him his health ; 
so will we praise and magnify thy name and 
mercy with a song of thanksgiving. Hear 
us, O Lord, for thy dear Son's sake, Jesus 
Christ our Saviour. Amen." 

Mr. Ferrar sent Mr. Edward Duncon to 
visit Mr. Herbert, and bring back a full 
account of his condition. On Mr. Duncon's 
entrance, Mr. Herbert, who was lying down 
much exhausted, raised himself, and in- 
quired respecting Mr. Ferrar's health. His 
solicitude satisfied, after some conversation 
about the holy life of his friend, he said to 
Mr. Duncon, " Sir, I see by your habit that 
you are a priest, and I desire you to pray 
with me." Mr. Duncon, expressing his 
willingness, asked, what prayers ? " O sir," 
was the reply, " the prayers of my mother, 

13 



146 MAJESTY AND HUMILITY RECONCILED. 

the Churcli of England, no other prayers are 
eqnal to them !* bnt at this same time I beg 
of you to pray only the Litany, for I am 
weak and faint." Mr. Dunoon complied, 
and remained Mr. Herbert's guest for the 
night, leaving him on the morrow with a 
promise to return within five days. This 
was about a month before Mr. Herbert's 
death. Mr. Duncon, describing the inter- 
view to Walton, told him, " that at his first 
view of Mr. Herbert, he saw majesty and 
humility so reconciled in his looks and be- 
haviour as begot in him an awful reverence 
for his person. He added, that his discourse 



'- *' At once both commending them, and his soul to God 
in them, immediately before his dissolution, as some 
martyrs did, Mr. Hullier by name, vicar of Babram, 
burnt to death in Cambridge, who, having the common 
prayer-book in his hand instead of a censer, and using 
the prayers as incense, offered himself up as a whole 
burnt sacrifice to God ; with whom the very book itself 
suffered martyrdom, when fallen out of his consumed 
hands, it was by the executioners thrown into the fire and 
burnt as an heretical book." — Olei/s Life of Herbert. 



HOPE AND PATIENCE. 147 

was SO pious and his motions so gentle and 
meek, that, after almost forty years, yet they 
remain still fresh in his memory." 

On the fifth day Mr. Dunoon returned.. 
He found Mr. Herbert much weaker than 
before, so that he could converse for a short 
time only. As his guest rose to depart, Mr. 
Herbert said, "Sir, I pray give my brother 
Ferrar an account of the decaying condition 
of my body, and tell him I beg him to con- 
tinue his daily prayers for me. And let him 
know that I have considered tJiat God only is 
what he would he; and that I am, by his 
grace, become now so like him, as to be 
pleased with what pleaseth him; and tell 
him, that I do not repine, but am pleased 
with my want of health ; and tell him my 
heart is fixed on that place where true joy is 
only to be found ; and that I long to be 
there, and do wait for my appointed change 
with hope and patience. Having said this," 
continued "Walton, " he did, with so sweet a 



14:8 A OIFT TO " DEJECTED, POOR SOULS." 

humility as seemed to exalt him, bow down 
to Mr. Duncon, and with a thoughtful and 
contented look say to him, "Sir, I pray 
deliver this little book to my dear brother 
Ferrar, and tell him he shall find in it a 
picture of the many spiritual conflicts that 
have passed betwixt God and my soul, before 
I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my 
Master ; in whose service I have now found 
perfect freedom ; desire him to read it ; and 
then, if he can think it may turn to the ad- 
vantage of any dejected, poor soul, let it be 
made public ; if not, let him burn it, for I 
and it are less than the least of God's mer- 
cies." The work thus humbly spoken of 
was "The Temple, or Sacred Poems and 
Private Ejaculations," destined not only to 
comfort thousands of "dejected, poor souls," 
but to place the author high among the 
glorious company of the English poets, and 
to endear him for all time to the hearts of 
all good men. 



CHAPTEE Xni. 



ME. -WOODNOT — THE PAST AND THE EUTUEE — ME. HEE- 

BEEt's LAST SUNDAY " CHIIECH MIJSIO" GOOD 

WOEKS THE DEATH-BED ME. HEEBEEt's BUEIAL 

MES. HEEBEEt'S widowhood LOSS OF ME. HEEBEET's 

MANUSCEIPTS. 



M 



E. DUITCON was succeeded a day or 
two after in his solemn watch at Mr. 
Herbert's bedside, by the poet's old friend, 
Mr. "Woodnot, who remained nntil all was 
over. During this brief period of three 
weeks, Mr. Herbert was often visited and 
prayed with by the Bishop and Prebendaries 
of Salisbury and the rest of the neighboring 
clergy. His wife and his three nieces, with 
Mr. Woodnot, were constant in their atten- 
dance. He would often speak to them to 
this eflect : " I now look back upon the plea- 

13^ 



150 PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 

sures of my life past, and see the content I 
have taken in beauty, in wit, and music, and 
pleasant conversation, are now all past by me 
like a dream, or as a shadow that returns not, 
and are now all become dead to me, or I to 
them ; and I see that, as my father and gen- 
eration hath done before me, so I shall now 
suddenly (with Job) make my hed also in the 
dark / and I praise God I am. prepared for 
it ; and I praise Him that I am not to learn 
patience, now I stand in such need of it ; and 
that I have practised mortification and endea- 
vored to die daily, that I might not die eter- 
nally ; and my hope is, that I shall shortly 
leave this valley of tears, and be free from 
all fevers and pain, and, which will be a more 
happy condition, I shall be free from sin 
and all the temptations and anxieties that at- 
tend it; and this being past, I shall dwell 
in the New Jerusalem — dwell there with 
men made perfect — dwell where these eyes 
shall see my Master and Saviour Jesus, and 



THE DAY MOST CALM, MOST BRIGHT. 151 



with Him see my dear mother, and all my 
relations and friends. But I must die or not 
come to that happy place, and this is my con- 
tent, that I am going daily toward it, and 
that every day which I have lived hath taken 
a part of my appointed time from me, and 
that.I shall live the less time, for having lived 
this and the day past." 

On the Sunday before his death, he rose 
suddenly from his couch, and calling for one 
of his musical instruments tuned it, and sang 
to its accompaniment the fifth stanza of his 
poem on Sunday. As this is one of the 
finest of his productions, and can nowhere be 
more fitly cited than here, we give the entire 
composition : 

SUNDAY. 

day most calm, most bright, 
The fruit of this, the next world's bud, 
The indorsement of supreme delight, 
Writ by a friend, and with his blood ; 
The couch of time ; care's balm and bay ; 
The week were dark, but for thy light ; 

Thy torch doth show the way. 



152 SUNDAY. 

The other days and thon 
Make Tip one man ; whose face thou art, 
Knocking at Heaven with thy brow : 
The working days are the back part ; 
The burden of the week lies there, 
Making the whole to stoop and bow, 

Till thy release appear. 

Man had straightforward gone 
To endless death ; but thou dost pull 
And turn us round to look on one. 
Whom, if we were not very dull, 
We could not choose but look on still ; 
Since there is no place so alone 

The which he doth not fill. 

Sundays the pillars are, 
On which Heaven's palace arched lies : 
The other days fill up the spare 
And hollow room with vanities. 
They are the fruitful beds and borders 
In God's rich garden ; that is bare 

Which parts their ranks and orders. 

The Sundays of man's life, 
Thredded together on time's string, 
Make bracelets to adorn the wife 
Of the eternal glorious King. 
On Sunday Heaven's gate stands ope ; 
Blessings are plentiful and rife, 

More plentiful than hope. 



FROM SEVEN TO SEVEN. 153 

This day my Saviour rose, 
And did enclose this light for his, 
That as each beast his manger knows, 
Man might not of his fodder miss. 
Christ hath took in this piece of ground, 
And made a garden there for those 

Who want herbs for their wound. 

The rest of our Creation 
Our great Redeemer did remove^ 
With the same shake, which at his passion 
Did the earth and all things with it move. 
As Samson bore the doors away, 
Christ's hands, though nail'd, wrought our salvation, 

And did unhinge that day. 

The brightness of that day 
We sullied by our foul offence : 
Wherefore that robe we cast away. 
Having a new at His expense. 
Whose drops of blood paid the full price. 
That was required to make us gay. 

And fit for Paradise. 

Thou art a day of mirth : 
And where the week days trail on ground. 
Thy flight is higher, as thy birth : 
Oh, let me take thee at the bound, 
Leaping with thee from seven to seven. 
Till that we both, bemg toss'd from earth, 

Fly hand in haqd to Heaven ! 



154 SWEETEST OF SWEETS. 

The beautiful incident just related, recalls 
another of Herbert's poems. In the rapt 
enjoyment of devotional melody he seems 
almost to anticipate the scene before us. 

CHURCH MUSIC. 

Sweetest of sweets, I thank you ; when displeasure 
Did through my body wound my mind, 

You took me thence, and in your house of pleasure, 
A dainty lodging me assigned. 

Now I in you without a body move, 

Rising and falling with your wings ; 
We both together sweetly live and love, 

Yet say sometimes, " God help poor kings.*' 

Comfort, I'll die ; for if you post from me, 

Sure I shall do so, and much more ; 
But if I travel in your company, 

You know the way to Heaven's door. 

On the day of his death he said to Mr. 
Woodnot: "My dear friend, I am sorry I 
have nothing to present to my merciful God 
but sin and misery ; but the first is pardoned, 
and a few hours will now put a period to the 
latter, for I shall suddenly go hence and be no 
more seen.'^ His friend reminded him of his 



THE LAST STRUGGLE. 155 

rebuilding of Leighton church, and some of 
his other acts of. charity. "They be good 
works," was the reply, " if they be sprinkled 
with the blood of Christ, and not otherwise." 
After this he became restless. As his wife 
and nieces kept their mournful watch at his 
bedside they perceived that he breathed 
faintly and with effort. A sudden agony 
fell upon him. His wife, in a paroxysm of 
grief, asked him how he felt. He replied, 
" that he had passed a conflict with his last 
enemy, and had overcome him by the merits 
of his Master Jesus." Looking up, he saw 
his wife and nieces weeping. He entreated 
them, " if they loved him, to withdraw into 
the next room, and there pray, every one 
alone for him ; for nothing but their lament- 
ations could make his death uncomfortable." 
They "yielded him a sad obedience" and 
tearfully withdrew, leaving only Mr. Wood- 
not and Mr. Bostock with him. Pointing 
out a cabinet to the latter, he requested him 



156 DEATH. 

to take from it his will. Receiving tlie docu- 
ment, he placed it in the hands of Mr. 
Woodnot. " My old friend," he said, " I 
here deliver yon my last will, in which you 
will find that I have made you my sole exec- 
utor, for the good of my wife and nieces ; 
and I desire you to show kindness to them, 
as they shall need it. I do not desire you to 
be just, for I know you will be so for your 
own sake ; but I charge you, by the religion 
of our friendship, to be careful of them." 
Having received Mr. "Woodnot's assent, he 
said : '' I am now ready to die ;" and after a 
space : " Lord, forsake me not, now my 
strength faileth me ; but grant me mercy for 
the merits of my Jesus. And now. Lord — 
Lord, receive my soul." 

'^ With these words, he breathed forth his 
divine soul, without any apparent disturb- 
ance, Mr. "Woodnot and Mr. Bostock attend- 
ing his last breath, and closing his eyes." 

Mr. Herbert was buried on the third of 



THE BURIAL SERVICE. 15^ 

March, 1632, beneath the chancel of hi^; 
church, the choristers of Salisbury, in Qom-- 
pliance with his expressed wishes, attending 
and chauntino; in the service for the burial 
'of the dead. There is something beautiful 
in this request. It marks his love of music 
and his love to the Church. He asked for 
no funeral pomp, no eulogy, no monumental 
marble ; but he did require that the noble 
service of our ritual should be given in all 
its beauty — ^that it might do its full w^ork by 
impressing the living as well as honoring 
the dead. 

Mrs. Herbert remained a widow for six 
years. She then married Sir Robert Cook, 
of Highnam, Gloucestershire, by whom she 
had a daughter. She died in 16G3, having 
survived Sir Robert fifteen years. She re- 
tained an affectionate reverence for Mr. 
Herbert to the last. She would often take 
occasion to mention his name, and say, 'Hhat 
name m,ugt liye in her memory till she put 

14 



158 LOST MANUSCRIPTS. 

off mortality." Walton says, that slie "had 
preserved raany of Mr. Herbert's private 
writings, which she intended to make pub- 
lic, bnt they and Highnam House were burnt 
together, by the late rebels, and so lost to pos- 
terity." Another authority, John Aubrey, 
the gossiping antiquary, gives a different ac- 
count. He says that Mr. Herbert " writ a 
folio in Latin, which, because the parson of 
Hineham could not read it, his widowe (then 
wife to Sir Robert Cook) condemned to the 
uses of good housewifry." We wish, for 
Lady Cook's and the parson's sake, that the 
story were not as authentic as we fear it is. 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

CORXARO ON TEMPERANCE — PROVERBS — WALTON's DE- 
SCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE — CHARACTER OF THE WORK 

THE "church porch" " THE ALTAr" " SIN" 

"virtue" THE "BRITISH CHURCh" " PEACE." 

IN addition to the works we have ah^eady 
mentioned, Mr. Herbert translated Cor- 
naro's Treatise on Temperance, an excellent 
little volume, which is still frequently printed. 
It appeared at Cambridge, in 1634, in the same 
volume with a translation, by Mr. Nicholas 
Ferrar, of the Hygiasticon * or. The Right 
Course of Preserving Health, by Leonard 
Lessius, and is included, with several notes 
on Lessius' treatise, in the poet's " Remains." 
He also formed a collection of Proverbs, 
published in 1640, with the title, '' Jacula 
Prudentum ; or. Outlandish Proverbs, Sen- 



160 A MAK HIS OWN PHYSIC. 

tences, etc., selected by Mr. George Herbert, 
late Orator of tlie University of Cambridge.'' 
Others were added in the second edition, 
1651. Tlie wliole are included in the "Re- 
mains." . Tlie translations appear to have 
been popular, and to have passed through 
several editions. The contemporary poet, 
Richard Crashaw, has rendered a fine trib- 
ute to Lessius' labors. It is itself redolent 
with the beauty of hearty, vigorous health. 

IN PRAISE or LESSIUS' RULE OF HEALTH. 
O O hf ?,[i Q w 

Hark hither, reader, would' st thou see 
Nature her own physician he ? 
Would' st see a man aU his own weaUh, 
His own physic, his own health ? 
A man whose soher soul can tell 
How to wear her garments well ? 
o i:> a o o c, 

A happy soul, that all the way 

To heaven hath a summer's day ? 

Would' st see a man whose well-warmed blood 

Bathes him in a genuine flood ? 

A man whose tuned humours he 

A seat of rarest harmony ? 

Would' st sec blithe looks, fresh cheeks beguile 

Age ? Would' st see December smile ? 



FIRST EDITION OF THE TEMPLE. 161 

Would' st see a nest of roses grow 

In a bed of reverend snow ? 

Warm thought, free spirits, flattering 

Winter's self into a spring ? 

In sum, would'st see a man that can 

Live to be old and still a man ? 

Whose latest, and most leaden hours. 

Fall with soft wings, stuck with soft flow' rs ; 

And, when life's sweet fable ends. 

Soul and body part like friends : — 

No quarrels, murmurs, no delay ; 

A kiss, a sigh, and so away ? 

This rare one, reader, would' st thou see, 

Hark hither ; and — thyself be he ! 

The first edition of The Temple, " by Mr. 
George Herbert, late Orator of the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge," bears no date."^ The 
second appeared in 1633. It is a book, as 
Walton, in his Life of Donne, with his 
wonted happy warmth remarks, " in which, 
by declaring his own spiritnal conflicts, 
he hath comforted and raised many deject- 
ed souls, and charmed them into sweet 

^ This first edition, a thin duodecimo, is very rare. A. 
copy sold at Sotheby's auction-room, in London for £19' 
17s. 6d. 



162 SACRED POEMS. 

and quiet thoughts ; a book, by the frequent 
readmg whereof, and the assistance of that 
spmt that seemed to inspire the author, the 
reader may attain habits of peace and piety, 
and all the gifts of the Holy Ghost and 
heaven, and may by still reading, still keep 
those sacred fires burning upon the altar of 
so pure a heart, as shall free it from the 
anxieties of this world, and keep it fixed 
upon things that are above." 

The sub-title of Tlie Temple — '• Sacred 
Poems and Private Ejaculations" — forms, 
perhaps, the best description of, and com- 
mentary on, its contents. The poems are 
truly sacred. A divine repose, a clmrch- 
like quiet, pervades the whole. There is no 
'eff*ort at display — no ambitious attempt to 
portray the scenes of Holy Writ. Each 
poem is an expression of the author's indi- 
vidual tliought- Many are prayers in verse, 
the "private ejaculations" of the author's 
•closet. But thouo:h remote from the turmoil 



CHAEITY AND SUNDAYS. 163 

and strife of the world, they bear ample evi- 
dence that their writer knew its trials and 
temptations, sympathized with its snflferings, 
was not insensible to its honorable re- 
wards. Herbert's entire life lies before us 
in its pages. 

The Temple opens with "The Chnrch 
Porch," a series of maxims for the general 
conduct of life, displaying thorough knowl- 
edge of the world and human nature. Many 
of these are expressed with great beauty. 
Thus he remarks on Charity : 

Join hands with God to make a man to live. 

On Sundays : 

Sundays observe : think when the beUs do chime, 
'Tis angels' music. 

He says of behavior in church : 

Let vain or busy thoughts have there no part : 
Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasures thither. 
Christ purged his temple ; so must thou thy heart. 
All worldly thoughts are but thieves met together 
To cozen thee. Look to thy actions well ; 
For churches either are our heaven or hell. 



164 PLAY THE MAN. 

He draws a lively moral from a dull ser- 
mon : 

Do not grudge 
To pick out treasures from an earthen pot. 
The worst speak something good : if all want sense, 
God takes a text, and preacheth patience. 

The Clnircli Porcli concludes witli the fol- 
lowino; incentive to dutv : 

In brief, acquit thee bravely ; play the man. 

Look not on pleasures as they come, but go. 

Defer not the least virtue : life's poor span 

Make not an ill, by trifling in thy woe. 

If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pain : 
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remain. 

Passino; Avithin, our 2:lance naturallv rests 
upon the Altar. The holy table is commem- 
orated in a fanciful manner, much in favor 
witli the poets of Herbert's day, by which 
the lines of the composition are so arranged 
that the printed page shall bear a resem- 
blance to its subject matter. We quote 
the poem as a curious illustration of this 
practice : 



THE PARTS OF THE TEMPLE. .165 
THE ALTAR. 

A BROKEN ALTAR, LORD, THY SERVANT REARS, 

MADE OF A HEART, AND CEMENTED WITH TEARS : 

WHOSE PARTS ARE AS THY HAND DID FRAME ; 

NO workman's tool hath touch' D THE SAME. 

A HEART ALONE 

IS SUCH A STONE, 

AS NOTHING BUT 

THY POWER DOTH CUT. 

WHEREFORE EACH PART 

OF MY HARD HEART 

' MEETS IN THIS FRAME, 

TO PRAISE THY NAJIE : 

THAT IP I CHANCE TO HOLD MY PEACE, 

THESE STONES TO PRAISE THEE MAY NOT CEASE. 

O LET THY BLESSED SACRIFICE BE MINE, 

AND SANCTIFY THIS ALTAR TO BETHINE. 

The consideration of The Sacrifice follows, 
a series of reflections upon the difierent 
scenes of the Passion. The spiritual Temple 
thns entered, the poet dwells in turn upon 
the sacraments and ritual, the holy seasons 
and ceremonies, the occasions of prayer and 
praise, the various parts of tlie sacred edifice, 
the joys and sorrows of the Christian life. 
We select four of these poems, which we 



166 Sm AND VIRTUE. 

consider, with tliose already quoted, as the 
most beautiful of the author's productions. 

SIN. 

Lord, with what care hast thou hegirt us round ! 
Parents first season us : then schoolmasters 
Deliver us to laws ; they send us bound 

To rules of reason, holy messengers, 

Pulpits and Sundays, sorrow dogging sin, 
Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes. 
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in, 

Bibles laid open, millions of surprises. 

Blessings beforehand, ties of gratefulness. 
The sound of Glory ringing in our ears ; 
Without, our shame ; within, our consciences : 

Angels and grace, eternal hopes and fears. 

Yet all these fences and their whole array 
One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away. 

VIRTUE. 

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright. 
The bridal of the earth and sky. 
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night ; 
For thou must die. 

Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave, 
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye. 
Thy root is ever in its grave, 

And thou must die. 



THE BRITISH CHURCH. 167 

Sweet spring, fuU of sweet days and roses, 
A box where sweets compacted lie. 
My music shows ye have your closes, 
And all must die. 

Only a sweet and virtuous soul, 
Like season' d timber, never gives ; 
But though the whole world turn to coal. 
Then chiefly lives. 



l^E BRITISH CHURCH. 

I joy, dear mother, when I view 
Thy perfect lineaments, ahd hue 

Both sweet and bright : 
Beauty in thee takes up her place. 
And dates her letters from thy face. 

When she doth write. 

A fine aspect in fit array, 

Neither too mean, nor yet too gay. 

Shows who is best : 
Outlandish looks may not compare ; 
For all they either painted are. 

Or else undrest. 

She on the hills, which wantonly 
Allureth all in hope to be 

By her preferr'd. 
Hath kiss'd so long her painted shrines, 
That e'en her face by kissing shines, 

For her reward. 



168 PEACE. 

She in the valley is so shy 

Of dressing, that her hair doth lie 

About her ears : 
While she avoids her neighbour's pride, 
She wholly goes on the other side, 

And nothing wears. 

But, dearest mother, (what those miss) 
The mean thy praise and glory is, 

And long may be. 
Blessed be God, whose love it was 
To double-moat thee with his grace, 

And none but thee. 



PEACE. 

Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell ? I humbly crave, 
Let me once know. 
I sought thee in a secret cave. 
And ask'd if Peace were there. 
A hollow wind did seem to answer. No : 
Go seek elsewhere. 

I did ; and going, did a rainbow note : 
Surely, thought I, 
This is tlie lace of Peace's coat : 
I will search out the matter. 
But while I look'd, the clouds immediately 
Did break and scatter. 

Then went I to a garden, and did spy 
A gallant flower, 



THE PRmCE OF OLD. 169 

The crown imperial. Sure, said I, 
Peace at the root must dwell. 
But when I digg'd, I saw a worm devour 
What show'd so well. 

At length I met a reverend good old man, 
Whom when for Peace 
I did demand, he thus began : 
There was a prince of old 
At Salem dwelt, who lived with good increase 
Of flock and fold. 

He sweetly lived ; yet sweetness did not save 
His life from foes, 
But after death out of his grave 

There sprang twelve stalks of wheat : 
Which many wondering at, got some of those 
To plant and set. 

It prosper' d strangely, and did soon disperse 
Through all the earth : 
For they that taste it do rehearse, 
That virtue lies therein ; 
A secret virtue, bringing peace and mirth 
By flight of sin. 

Take of this grain, which in my garden grows. 
And grows for you ; 
Make bread of it : and that repose 
And Peace, which everywhere 
With so much earnestness you do pursue, 
Is only there. 

Several of tlie poems of The Temple are 

15 



170 OBSCrHITIES. 

disfio:iired bv conceits or similes the meaninor 
of which is not readily apparent, and Tvhen 
obtained often out of harmony Tvith the rest 
of the composition. An example of thi? 
fault occurs in the concluding vei'ses of the 
poem on Yirtue. Other passages may be 
found in which the train of thouo-ht is in- 
volved and the meaning obscure. A httle 
patience will, however, always overcome the 
difficultv, and it will l)e well to bear in mind 
I Dr. Johnson's remark, in a somewhat similar 

vein, upon the poets of Herbert's school, 
" that, if their conceits were far-fetched, they 
were often worth the carriage."* 

■5 Life of Cowlev. 



P 



CHAPTEE XV. 

LICENSE FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE TEMPLE — RE- 
LIGION AND AMERICA THE VIRGINIA AND NEW EN- 
GLAND EMIGRATIONS — MR. FERRAR's INTRODUCTION 
TO THE TEMPLE — POPULARITY OF THE WORK THE 

8YNAG0GUE- 

cc 

PROVERBS. 

WHEN Mr. Ferrar applied at Cambridge 
to obtain a license for the publication 
of The Temple, the Yice Chancellor refused 
his consent, unless the first couplet of the 
following lines should be omitted : 

Eeligion stands on tiptoe in our land, 
Eeady to pass to the American strand. 
When height of malice, and prodigious lusts, 
Impudent sinning, witchcrafts and distrusts, 
The marks of future hane, shall fill our cup 
Unto the brim, and make our measure up ; 
When Seine shall swallow Tiber ; and the Thames, 
By letting in them both, pollutes her streams ; 



172 RELIGION m AMERICA. 

When Italy of us shall have her will, 

And all her calendars of sins fulfil, 

Whereby one may foretell what sins next year, 

Shall both in France and England domineer : 

Then shall Religion to America flee ; 

They have their times of gospel ev'n as we.'- 

Mr. Ferrar, however, insisted that the work 
should be published as left by Mr. Herbert, 
and the Vice Chancellor finally yielded, with 
the remark, " I knew Mr. Herbert well, and 
know that he had many heavenly specula- 
tions, and was a divine poet ; but I hope the 
world will not take him to be an inspired 
prophet, and therefore I license the whole 
book." 

These lines have a peculiar interest to 
American readers. They show that the 
thoughts of Herbert had dwelt on one of the 
great events of his age, the colonization of 
our beloved country. From the prominent 
position of his friend Mr. Ferrar in the Vir- 
ginia Company, he is likely to have been fa- 

«» The Church Militant. 



DEDICATION. 173 

miliar witli that noble enterprise, conceived 
and executed in a missionaiy no less than a 
mercantile spirit ;^ and he was, as we have 
seen, a contemporaiy at Cambridge with 
some of the future founders of ISTew England. 
Herbert did not, however, attach any pro- 
phetic significance to the lines. 

Mr. Ferrar prefixed to The Temple a brief 
address by " The Printer to the Eeader." 
" The dedication of this work," he finely re- 
marks, '' having been made by the author to 
the Divine Majesty only, how should we now 
presume to interest any mortal man in the 
patronage of it ? Much less think we it meet 
to seek recommendation of the Muses, for that 
which himself was confident to have been 



•-' This is abundantly evident from the minute account 
of the proceedings of the company given in the Life of 
Ferrar, and other early records. A noble sermon, preach- 
ed by Dr. Donne on the 30th of November, 1622, bears 
eloquent testimony to the same effect. It is well known 
that the daily service of their Church was regularly cel- 
ebrated by the early colonists. 

15* 



174: THE SYNAGOGUE. 

inspired by a diviner breath than flows from 
Helicon. The world, therefore, shall receive 
it in that naked simplicity with which he left 
it, without any addition either of support or 
ornament, more than is inclosed in itself. We 
leave it free and unforestalled to every man's 
judgment, and to the benefit that he shall 
find by perusal." 

Tlie Temple was received with great favor 
by the public, and at once attained a wide 
popularity. Twenty thousand copies had 
been sold when Walton's Life of the author 
was written. The edition published in 1640 
was accompanied by a collection of poems 
similar in character, but far inferior in merit, 
to those of Herbert, entitled, " The Syna- 
gogue, or the Shadow of the Temple, Sacred 
Poems and Private Ejaculations, in imitation 
of Mr. George Herbert." They were pub- 
lished anonymously, but the authorship has 
generally been attributed to the Eev. Chris- 
topher Harvey, on the authority of Izaak 



CHEISTOPHER HARVEY. 175 

Walton, who addresses his " reverend friend, 
the Author of The Synagogue," in some com- 
mendatory verses : 

I loved you for your Synagogue, before 

I knew your person ; but now love you more ; 

Because I find 
It is so true a picture of your mind ; 

Which tunes your sacred lyre 

To that eternal quire, 

Where holy Herbert sits 

(0 shame to profane wits !) 
And sings his and your anthems, to the praise 
Of Him that is the first and last of days. 

Walton also quotes, in his Complete An- 
gler, one of the poems of the volume, with 
the name '' Ch. Harvie" appended as the 
author. 

The Synagogue has since maintained its 
place in almost every edition of Herbert's 
Poems. We quote, as a specimen of its 
style, and for its own merits, the poem se- 
lected by Mr. Walton : 



176 PRAYER BY THE BOOK, 



COMMON PRAYER. 

What, prayer by the book ? and common ? Yes. Why not? 
The spirit of grace 
And supplication 
Is not left free alone 
For time and place ; 
But manner too. To read, or speak by rote, 
Is all alike to him, that prays 
With's heart, that with his mouth he says. 

They that in private by themselves alone 
Do pray, may take 
What liberty they please, 
In choosing of the ways, 
Wherein to make 
Their soul's most intimate affections known 
To him that sees in secret, when 
They are most conceal' d from other men. 

But he that unto others leads the way 
In public prayer. 
Should choose to do it so 
As all, that hear, may know 
They need not fear 
To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say. 
Amen ; nor doubt they were betray' d 
To blaspheme, when they should have pray'd. 

Devotion will add life unto the letter. 
And why should not 
That which authority 
Prescribes esteemed be 



IS 



" OriLAXDISH PROVKRBS.'' 177 

Advantage got ? 
If the Prayer be good, the commoner the better. 
Prayer in the Church's words, as well 

As sense, of all prayers bears the bell. 

Herbert's collection of •• Outlanclish Prov- 
verbs" was one of the earliest formed in the 
lano^uao;e. The selection testifies, like all his 
works, to his knowledge of the world. The 
Proverbs are eleven hundred and eio'htv- 
two in number. A few specimens may be 
given : 

He that studies his content, wants it. 
Every day brings its bread with it. 
Humble hearts have humble desires. 
A cool mouth, and warm feet, live long. 
When a friend asks, there is no to-morrow. 
Grod sends cold according to clothes. 
Old wine and an old friend are good provisions. 
Would you know what money is, go borrow some. 
Though you see a churchman in, yet continue in the 
church stiU. 

HeU 13 fuU of good meanings and wishings. 

The last-quoted proverb is interesting from 



178 DR. JOHXSOX. 

its similarity to a favorite exj^ression of Dr. 
Johnson, '^ Hell is paved with good inten- 
tions." Both are, no doubt, derived from a 
common original, far back in the primitive 
ages of wisdom. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

IZAAK WALTON — LIYES OF DONXE AXD WALTOX — THE 

COMPLETE AKGLEE ALLUSIONS TO ME. HEEBERT 

LIYES OF H00E:EE AND HEEBEET— PEEFACES TO HIS 

LIFE OF HEEBEET WOODFOED's LINES ON HEEBEET 

AND DONNE COTTON's TEIBUTE TO HEEBEET — DU- 

POET's LATIN LINES — LIFE OF SANDEESON — WOEDS- 
WOETH's SONNET — WALTON's DEATH. 

WALTON'S Life of Herbert appeared in 
1670. We have already, by our fre- 
quent extracts, given a significant proof of 
our admiration of his labors. Herbert owes 
no small portion of his fame to his en- 
thusiastic old biographer. Walton was a man 
every way qualified to do justice to his theme. 
He presented as a layman a model almost as 
perfect as the Complete Parson, Herbert. 

Born of respectable but not opulent pa- 
rents in the midland town of Stafford, he 



180 SIR HENRY WOTTOX. 

came in liis youth to London and devoted 
himself to merchandise. His honesty and 
enterprise seem to have been cro\vned with 
success in the accumulation of a moderate 
fortune. He was a parishioner and intimate 
of Herbert's friend Donne. On the death 
of that eminent divine the preparation of his 
sermons for the press, with a memoir of the 
author, was commenced by Sir Henry Wot- 
ton, a leading statesman, scholar, and church- 
man of the period. He died before he had 
more than entered upon his task. Tlie duty 
next devolved upon Walton, who liad al- 
ready been engaged as an assistant. His 
life, prefixed to a folio volume of Donne's 
Sermons, appeared in 1640. 

His next labor of love was tlie preparation 
of the BeliquicB Wottoiiiance for the press, 
accompanied by a memoir of his accom- 
plished friend. The volume appeared in 
1651. In 1653 he published liis Complete 
Anofler, a little work which has ffiven him 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 181 

a perpetual fame as an author. The purity 
and freshness of its style, its pictures of rural 
scenes, its cheerful vein of reflection, its un-- 
affected piety, have made it a favorite with 
all lovers of good books. 

Walton has twice introduced Herbert in 
the Complete Angler. In the first chap- 
ter, Piscator closes some remarks on rivers 
and fishes in these words : 

"But, Sir, lest this discourse may seem- 
tedious, I shall give it a sweet conclusion out 
of that holy poet, Mr. George Herbert,, his 
divine contemplations on God's Providenc'e." 

Three stanzas follow from one of the poems 
of The Temple. 

In the fifth chapter, Piscator says— And 
now, scholar ! my direction for fly-fishing is 
ended with this shower, for it has done rain- 
ing. And now look about you and see how 
pleasantly that meadow looks ; nay, and the 
earth smells as sweetly, too. Come, let me 
tell you what holy Mr. Herbert says of such 

16 



182 MR. HERBEKT AN ANGLER. 

days and flowers as these ; and then Tve will 
thank God that we enjoy them ; and walk to 
the river and sit down quietly, and try to 
catch the other brace of tronts — 

Sweet day ! so cool, so calm, so bright."" 

Yenator, I thank yon, good master! for 
yonr good direction for fly-fishing; and for 
the sweet enjoyment of the pleasant day, 
which is, so far, spent without off'ence to 
'God or man. And I thank yon for the 
sweet close of yonr discourse with Mr. Her- 
bert's verses ; who, I have heard, loved an- 
gling, and I do the rather believe it, because 
he had a spirit suitable to anglers, and to those 
primitive Christians that you love, and have 
so much commended. 

Piscator. Well, my loving scholar I and I 
am well pleased to know that you are so well 
pleased with my direction and discourse. 
And since you like these verses of Mr. Her- 



- Virtue, p. 87. 



LIVES OF HOOKER AND HERBERT. 183 

bert's so well, let me tell yon, what a rev- 
erend and learned divine that professes to 
imitate him, and has indeed done so most 
excellently, hath writ of onr book of Com- 
mon Prayer ; which I know you will like the 
better, because he is a friend of mine, and I 
am sure no enemy to angling. 

What, Pray'r by tlie book ? and common ? Yes. Why 

not ?^> 

AValton's next work, the Life of Richard 
Hooker, appeared in 1665. Tliis was fol- 
lowed by the Life of George Herbert. In 
the preface he says : 

^' In a late retreat from the business of this 
world, and those many little cares with 
which I have too often incumbered myself, 
I fell into a contemplation of some of those 
historical passages that are recorded in sacred 
story, and more particularly of what had 
past betwixt our blessed Saviour and that 

^' Ante, page 176. 



184 DONNE, WOTTON5 AND HERBERT. 

wonder of women, and sinners, and mourn- 
ers. Saint Mary Magdalen. 

•Jf 'X- 4f ^ -Jf 

''Upon occasion of which fair example, I 
did lately look back, and not without some 
content (at least to myself) that I have en- 
deavoured to deserve the love, and preserve 
the memory of my two deceased friends. Dr. 
Donne and Sir Henry Wotton, by declaring 
the several employments and various acci- 
dents of their lives. And though Mr. George 
Herbert (whose Life I now intend to write)* 
were to me as stranger to his person, for I 
have only seen him ; yet since he was, and 
was worthy to be, their friend, and very 
many of his have been mine, I judge it may 
not be unacceptable to those that knew any 
of them in their lives, or do now know them 
by mine, or their own writings, to see this 
conjunction of them after their deaths, with- 
out which many things that concerned them, 
and some things that concerned the age in 



DONNE, WOTTON, HOOKEE, AND HEEBERT. 185 

which they lived, would be less perfect, and 
lost to posterity. 

" For these reasons I have undertaken it, 
and if I have prevented any abler person, I 
beg pardon of him and my reader.'' 

The Life of Herbert was soon after repub- 
lished, with those of Donne, Wotton, and 
Hooker, in a single volume. In the preface 
to this collection the author remarks : 

'^ For the life of Mr. George Herbert, I pro- 
fess it to be a fi*ee-will offering, and writ 
chiefly to please myself; but not without 
respect to posterity, for though he was not 
a man that the next age can forget, yet 
many of his particular acts and virtues 
might have been neglected, or lost, if I had 
not collected and presented them to the imi-^ 
tation of those that shall succeed us : for I 
conceive writing to be both a safer and truer- 
preserver of men's virtuous actions than tra- 
dition." 

Among the congratulatory poems prefixed^ 
16^ 



186 CHARLES OOTTOlSr. 

in accordance witli the publishing fashion of 
the age, to this collection, are some verses 
by Samuel AVoodford, afterwards Prebend- 
ary of Winchester. They contain a pleas- 
ing allusion to our poet. 

*' Herbert and Donne again are join'd, 
Now here below, as they're above ; 
These friends are in their old embraces twin'd, 
And since by you the interview's design' d, 
Too weak, to part them, Death does prove ; 
For, in this book they meet again, as in one heaven 
they love." 

Walton's Life was first printed with Her- 
l^ert's Poems in 1674, when the tenth edition 
of ''The Temple" appeared. In the follow- 
ing year, the collected Lives were reprinted. 
■Charles Cotton the author of the Second 
Part of The Comj)lete Angler, printed in 
1676, addressed a congratulatory poem to 
his old friend, " my father Walton,'' as he 
•delighted to call him, on the occasion. Tlie 
following lines have an especial interest for 
us : 



LINES ON Walton's lives. 187 

The meek and learned Hooker too, almost 
In the Church' s ruins overwhelm' d and lost, 
Is, by your pen, recover' d from his dust. 

And Herbert : — he whose education. 
Manners, and parts, by high applauses blown, 
Was deeply tainted with ambition ; 

And fitted for a court, made that his aim ; 
At last, without regard to birth or name, 
For a poor country cure does all disclaim ; 

Where with a soul, compos' d of harmonies. 
Like a sweet swan, he warbles as he dies, 
His Maker's praise, and his own obsequies. 

Anottier allusion to Herbert is found in 
the Latin ode by his friend, the Rev. James 
Duport,^ prefixed to the fifth edition of the 
Complete Angler. We quote from the ele- 
gant translation by the Eev. James Tate, a 
Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral, 
printed in the Rev. Dr. Zouch's Life of Wal- 
ton: 

While Hooker, philosophic sage. 
Becomes the wonder of your page, 

- v., p. 58. 



188 Wordsworth's sonnet. 

Or while we see combined in one 
The Wit and the Divine in Donne, 
Or while the Poet and the Priest, 
In Herbert's sainted form confest, 
Unfold the temple's holy maze 
That awes and yet invites our gaze : 
Worthies these of pious name 
From your portraying pencil claim 
A second life, and strike anew 
With fond delight the admiring view. 

In 1678 Walton published the Life of Dr. 
Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, the 
last of his inimitable series of biographies. 
Well has a Church Poet, a worthy successor 
of George Herbert, William Wordsworth, 
written, that 

There are no colors in the fairest sky 

So fair as these ; the feather whence the pen 

Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, 

Dropped from an Angel's wing. AVith moistened eye, 

We read of faith and purest charity, 

In Statesman, Priest, and humble Citizen. 

Oh, could we copy their mild virtues, then 

What joy to live, what blessedness to die ! 

Methinks their very Names shine still and bright, 

Apart — like glow-worms in tlic woods of spring, 

Or lonely tapers shooting far a light 



Walton's death and tomb. 189 

That guides and cheers — or seen like stars on high, 

Satellites burning in a lucid ring, 

Around meek Walton's heavenly memory. 

On the nintli of August, 1683, Izaak Wal- 
ton^ " being this present day in the neinty- 
eth yeare of my age and in perfect memory, 
for wich praysed be God," made his wilL It 
is sealed with the seal presented to him by 
Dr. Donne, of Our Saviour crucified on an 
anchor. On the fifteenth of the following 
December, " during the time of the great 
frost," the good old man closed his long, use- 
ful, and happy life. He was buried in Win- 
chester Cathedral, where his tombstone may 
still be seen, set in the pavement of a quiet 
side chapel ; a beautiful and ^appropriate rest- 
ing-place. We may well aj)ply to this simple 
slab the fine lines of the poet Crashaw's 
" Epitaph upon Mr. Ashton." 

The modest front of this small floor, 
Believe me, reader, can say more 
Than many a braver marble can, — • 
" Here lies a truly honest man." 



190 Herbert's obligations to walton. 

Few distingiiislied men have been as much 
indebted to their biographers as George Her- 
bert to Izaak Walton. The poet lives by his 
admirer's portraiture almost as much as bj 
his own sweet verses. By the aid of the 
" honest chronicler," we aclmire and revere 
the man as well as the poet. 

We meet with a fine tribute to the celes- 
tial verse of Herbert in " Stej)s to the Tem- 
ple," a collection of Poems, by Eichard Cras- 
haw, a poet whom we have already had oc- 
casion to mention, first published in 1646. 
The title of this work seems to show that 
its author wished to be regarded as an ad- 
mirer and follower of the author of The 
Temple. 

ON MR. G. HERBERT'S BOOK, 

ENTITLED, " TUE TEMPLE OF SACRED POEMS," SENT TO X 
GENTLEWOMAN. 

Know you, fair, on what you look ? 
Divincst love lies in this book, 
Expecting fire from your eyes, 
To kindle this His sacrifice. 



wakton's allusion to heebert. 191 

When your hands untie these strings, 
Think you've an angel by the wings ; 
One that gladly will be nigh 
To wait upon each morning sigh, 
To flutter in the balmy air 
Of your well perfumed prayer. 
These white plumes of His he'll lend you. 
Which every day to heaven will send you ; 
To take acquaintance of the sphere, 
And all the smooth-faced kindred there. 
And though Herbert's name do owe 
These devotions, fairest, know 
That while I lay them on the shrine 
Of your white hand, they are mine. 

During the 18th century, Herbert, in com- 
mon with most of the writers of his time, was 
almost forgotten. There is a curious evi- 
dence of this in a passage in the Rev. Dr. 
Joseph Warton's Essay on the Genius and 
Character of Pope. Referring to the well- 
known verses by that author, commencing. 

Vital spark of heavenly flame, 

he says : 

" There is a close and surprising resem- 
blance between this Ode of Pope and one of 
a very obscure and justly forgotteji rhymer 



192 POPE, CAMPBELL, AND COLERIDGE. 

of the age of diaries II., namely, Thomas 
Flatman, from whose dunghill, as well as 
from the dregs of Crashaw, of Carew, of 
Herbert and others (for it is well known he 
was a great reader of all these poets). Pope 
has very judiciously collected gold." 

The extract shows that Fope knew where 
to seek for treasure, and that his taste is more 
to be commended than that of his commenta- 
tor. It is, however, only of recent years that 
Herbert has recovered his proj)er position in 
our literature. Even so late as ISIS we find 
a critic of nice ear and acknowledged taste 
as well as the author of noble lyrics, Thomas 
Campbell, in his Specimens of English Po- 
etry, dismissing Tlie Temple Avith a brief and 
almost discourteous sentence. 

One of the first, in time and merit, to do 
justice to George Herbert, was Samuel Tay- 
lor Coleridge. His notes on The Temple, ap- 
pended to Mr. Pickering's edition, are mark- 
ed by sympatliy and appreciation as well as 



:mrs, BEow^ma. 193 

Ms wonted critical power, and he finely re- 
marks, in The Friend : 

" Having mentioned the name of Herbert, 
that model of a man, a gentleman and a cler- 
gyman, let me add, that the quaintness of his 
thoughts, not of his diction, than which noth- 
ing can be more pure, manly, and unaffected, 
has blinded modern readers to the great gen- 
eral merit of his poems, which are, for the 
most part, exquisite in their kind." 

Another noble poet, the grandest of female 
writers, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, has paid 
a brief but emphatic tribute to our author. 
In a rapid review of many of the great 
names of the time of Elizabeth and James, 
she presents "Herbert with his face as the 
face of a spirit, dimly bright."^ 

Mr. Pickering's reprint, in 1836, of Her- 
bert's prose and poetry, was an acceptable 
service to his reputation. Other editions of 



* Papers on the English Poets, pubUshed in the London 
Athemeum for 18i2. 

17 



194 PORTRAIT OF MR. HERBERT. 

the Poetical Works, edited by the Rev. Rob- 
ert Aris Willmott and the Rev. George Gil- 
fillan, have since been published. An illus- 
trated copy of Tlie Temple appeared in 1856. 
It is the most beautiful tribute a sister art has 
yet bestowed upon our poet. In addition to 
numerous landscapes and imaginative de- 
signs, we find the pages decorated with deli- 
cately sketched boughs and garlands, so that 
The Temple is presented, in happy harmony 
with the gift-book purpose of the edition, as 
if " dressed for Christmas." 

The portraits of Geo]*ge Herbert have all 
been copied from tlie engraved head prefixed 
to an early edition of his poems. This was 
executed by Robert White, an artist cele- 
brated for the excellence of his work and 
accuracy of his likenesses. Many of these 
were drawn from tlie life with crayons upon 
vellum ; but this could not have been the case 
with Mr. Herbert's, as tlie artist was not born 
until 161-5. The original drawing or paint- 



MK. Herbert's successors. 195 

ing from wliicli liis work is copied is not 
known. 

Bemerton has, as we have seen, ckanged 
but little since Mr. Herbert's day. Two of 
its later incumbents have contributed to 
maintain its literary rejDutation. John Nor- 
ris is generally quoted as ISTorris of Bemer- 
ton. He was born in 1657, was educated at 
Oxford, and became a Fellow of All Souls' 
College about 1681. He was ordained in 
1681, and appointed rector of Bemerton in 
1691. He was the author of several philo- 
sophical works of the Platonic or ideal school, 
and died at Bemerton, worn out it is said 
with excessive study, in 1711. 

William Coxe became the successor of Her- 
bert in 1788. This voluminous writer was 
born in London in 1747. He received a 
Fellowship in King's College, Cambridge, in 
1768. He made an extensive tour through 
Europe with Lord Herbert, son of the Earl 
of Pembroke, from whom he afterwards ob- 

/ 



196 LIFE AND FAME. 

tained the living of Bemerton, and published 
several volumes on these and his subsequent 
continental travels. He wrote histories of 
the House of Austria, and of the Bourbon 
Kings of Spain, each in three large volumes ; 
the Lives of the Duke of Marlborough and 
Sir Robert AValpole, with other large and 
elaborate works. In 1805 he became Arch- 
deacon of Wilts. He died at Bemerton in 
1828. 

We have followed the career of George 
Herbert from the cradle to the grave, and 
traced his reputation from its birth to its 
present ripeness. The one is the limited 
record of thirty-four years passed in the nar- 
row bounds of an University and a village, the 
other spreads over two centuries, and follows 
the broad path of the English language around 
the world. Tlie dust has returned to dust; 
even the stone of the sepulchre has been hid 
from sight by subsequent chancel alterations, 
but the author still lives, for his " winged 



CONCLUSION. 197 

words" still speed over the world, angelic 
messengers of peace and comfort. Sweet in 
themselves, how their melody deepens and 
ripens as we study the countenance of the 
singer and muse over the pure soul, beaming 
forth in its fair serenity ! How anthem-like 
seems the " Sundav," as we listen in the sick 
room on that last day ^'most pure, most 
calm, most bright," to the tones of tremulous 
lute and quavering voice ! How gently, with 
mind stored with this good example, with 
these melodious utterances, does the united 
harmony fill our thoughts, " giving us pause" 
in our daily labor, as of old the husband- 
man's plough rested when the tones of '' Mr. 
Herbert's Saint's bell" floated through the 
air. 

THE END. 



THE BOY MISSIONARY. 

BY MKS. JENNY MAESH PARKER. 



The Boy Missionary is one of the best things the 
Church Book Society has given us in a long while. The 
idea is, to show how a poor little boy — weak, sickly, and 
not able to study much — may have the spirit of a mis- 
sionary, and may, among his fellows, do the work of a 
missionary, too, even in boyhood ; while others, of more 
brilliant parts and more commanding social position, look 
forward to missionary life as something future and far 
distant, and find their days brought to an end before 
their work is even begun. The authoress, Jenny Marsh 
Parker, shows no small knowledge of boy nature, and 
the temptations incident to the life of boys in a country 
village. Davie Hall will make many missionaries, both 
for the Far West and for home. — Church Journal, 

25 



BY THE REV. J. N. NORTON. 
18J£0. each TOLHSrE EMBELLISHED WITU A STEEL PORTRAIT. 

»-4<^V-« 



NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

The Church Book Society adds four more to the list of 
Lives of the Bishops of the Church of America, prepared by 
the Rev. John N. JSTorton, of Kentucky. They are those 
of Seabury, Moore of Virginia, Hobart, and Philander 
Chase. In all these Mr. Norton's vigorous and racy style 
of writing is strongly marked. He has a cordial sympathy 
with the best points in each one of these noble Bishops, 
and brings it forward in the way most certain to win the 
love of the young and tender-hearted reader. He never 
compromises the true principles of the Church, and never 
gives them such undue or offensive prominence as would 
be likely to provoke opposition ; but, on the contrary, 
gathers about them the kindest associations with names 
honored for other reasons in the Church. There is no 
partyism soiling these pages. Tlie divisions of party, which 
more or less obscured, in these Bishops, the beauty of their 
character, while the walls of their life were in building, 
have long since been brushed away by the hand of death. 
Standing at our present distance from the brethren wlio 
have gone before, we can see the beautiful unity in which 

8 



CRITICAL NOTICES. 

their labors were really blended, much better, perhaps, 
than they themselves when ou earth. It is in this ad- 
mirable spirit that IMj*. Norton has worked. Whether, 
with Seabury, receiving the apostolate on that cold, misty 
November morning in an upper room at Aberdeen, and 
laying the apostolic foundation in Connecticut and at our 
General Convention ; or with Moore, in his marked con- 
version, and his powerful preaching, turning the hearts 
of hundreds to God, at St. Andrew's and St. Stephen's, 
and in the length and breadth of the Old Dominion, build- 
ing up once more into life what had well-nigh crumbled 
into the dust of death ; or with Hobart, fighting the con- 
troversial battles of the Church, and, like a wise master- 
builder, laying the foundations of the General Theological 
Seminary, the Church Book Society, and enlisting the 
power of the periodical press, guiding the great parish of 
Trinity Church, and building up his vast diocese duiing 
his episcopate of nineteen years to more than five times its 
size when he was consecrated, leaving everywhere the in- 
delible stamp of his own noble character ; or with Philan- 
der Chase at the North and the South and the East and 
the far West — in Connecticut, New York, New Orleans, 
Ohio, Illinois, England, everywhere begging, preaching, 
building, and leaving monuments of his pioneer labors 
that shall last to all time, especially as the founder — who 
else can say the same ? — of two Church Colleges, both on a 
firm basis, and both going on from strength to strength ; 
with all these Mr. Norton is equally in love, equally at 
home, equally interesting to his readers. He has wisely 
preserved in his pages many of the piquant personal anec- 
dotes and pithy sayings, and many of the touches of 
humor, that warmed the converse of those noble Bishops, 
and which will endear them still more to the huKnan 

9 



CRrnCAL NOTICES. 

instincts of all. These lives of the Bishops should be hoiisi' 
hold books in the families of all Churchmen everywhere 
throughout the land. 

Each volume is handsomely gotten up, with very nice 
firm paper, neat colored binding, and a very fine and del- 
icately executed steel engraving. The portraits alone are 
well worth the whole price of the books. 

Another pleasing fact concerning these books, is, that 
they are published without any expense to the Society for 
the stereotypes and engravings. The Life of Seabury is 
given by the Sunday School of St. Paul's Church, New 
Haven ; that of Moore by the Sunday Schools of St. An- 
drew's, Staten Island (of which he was for 20 years rector), 
and St. John's, Waterbury, Conn. ; that of Hobart, by the 
Sunday Schools of Trinity Parish, New York ; and that of 
Chase, by the liberality of a " Missionary at the West." 
— Church Journal. 

The author has done an important work for the Church 
in these volumes, and done it with great attractions of 
style and great fidelity to truth. — Banner of the Cross. 

The peculiarities of the author's style, his extreme con- 
ciseness, combined with the most remarkable clearness 
and purity, seem to be just adapted to the work he has 
taken in hand. Besides, he manifests a delicate appreci- 
ation of the leading points in the character of each one of 
the eminent men whom he has portrayed. The result is 
a series of biographies which for brevity, point, complete- 
ness, and vigor, are unsurpassed in the language. The> 
will doubtless retain a permanent place in English litera- 
ture. — Louisville Journal. 

10 



LIVES OF THE BISHOPS. 

BY THE EEV. JOHN N. NOETON, A. M., 
Rector of the Church of the Ascension^ Frankfort, Kentucky. 

We have just received two more of these charming and 
model biographies. Bishop Dehon, of South Carolina, 
and Bishop Gadsden, of the same diocese, are the subjects 
of these two A^olumes. It is very high praise to say 
that Mr. Norton has elaborated these volumes with even 
more care than either of the preceding, and that the re- 
sult is a more finished and delightful composition. We 
have called this entire series, so far as it has gone, model 
biographies, and "sve hope that they will become such. 
They are just such graphic and faithful portraitures of 
distinguished men as, in all but a very few exceptional 
cases, should supersede the heavv octavos, sometimes of 
several volumes, that are customarily devoted to a single 
life. As this author has well said, "Such a multitude 
of good and useful men have lived and labored in the 
world, that we can not well afford the time to read long 
biographies of them all." The peculiar merit of Mr. 
Norton in this series is, that he not only presents us with 
all the facts tha.t are worthy of record in a very brief 
space, but so clothes those facts, in that marvellously 
brief narrative, with all their circumstances and associa- 
tions, as to give the most lively and interesting picture 
of the man, his work, and his times. 

The life of Bishop Gadsden contains a touching notice 
of the late Rev. John B. Gallagher, who was some time a 
presbyter in South Carolina. The people of Louisville 
will long remember with affection and gratitude the man 
whose soundness in the faith, and exemplary life, and 
lovely character, so iUustrated and advanced the cause of 
virtue and religion in our city. — Louisville Journal. 

24 



BIOGRAPHY OF THE 

BY THE REV. D. P. SANFORD, M.A., 

OF BROOKLYN. 

W&iU) a SPortrait anti JJUustratfons. 

This work is prepared in a very careful and interesting 
style. The peculiar warmth, strength, and depth of 
Martyn's personal experience, with all its sensitiveness, 
tenderness, and wonderful boldness and energy, are faith- 
fully preserved, and illustrated with copious extracts from 
his private diary and correspondence. The more church- 
like features of his character, principles, and practice are 
not omitted or ignored, as is too commonly the case, but 
are fairly and truthfully stated. His extraordinary labors 
in the East^the breaking the soil, and watering the 
ground with his tears, and sowing the seed of the Word 
of Life — all this is narrated with genial spirit and patient 
minuteness, until his life of wondrous youth was crowned 
by an early death. Martyn, more than any other man, 
has been the germinant spirit of the missionary enter- 
prise that now distinguishes the Church ; and the vast 
power of his spiritual energy has made itself widely felt 
among the denominations around us, as well as among 
ourselves. His name has been music upon ten thousand 
tongues, and yet breathes fragrance from ten times ten 
thousand hearts. Mr. Sanford has done the Church a 
great service in placing so excellent a memoir of such a 
man on the shelves of our Sunday School libraries, where 
it will have the best chance to impregnate minds yet 
fresh and young with the best life of Martyn' s singular 
self-devotion, and gentle, loving, and therefc're irresist- 
ible, power. 

11 









^. 














-/- 






O. <i' 



3. 



, V -^ <,^^ 









\ 



\\ ' o ^ ' « >? '"" " 



^'^^ '^ V^^ 



"bo^ 




,0 



,*>, 



>^ 






-^ 



.0' 



^ ... 



V^' s^ 



^/ 



r. 






.\>' ^.. '- ^' - ..V- 









LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 151 103 8 



«** 



